♬∞ Punch♏︎Tsubasa ☉☯

@richardiancox THANK YOU KING!!!

I know a lot of people think it’s heartless to dislike Kikyo and I guess it would be if it’s just for the sake that she “gets in the way”.

But regardless if one considers the movies canon or not, watching the first one recontextualized Kikyo as a character to a lot of people.

When Kagome lies crying with Inuyasha in her arms Kikyo says “serves you right” and it’s so obvious to the audience that all of that exchange is driven by the resentment that part of her soul has grasped onto as a lifeline, but it also shows a deep green envy she must feel. Because she knows Inuyasha trusted Kagome in that moment before he was hit.

Kagome was aware she was being manipulated whereas Kikyo actually shot that arrow true and full of hate and Inuyasha felt that betrayal.

So when Kikyo says “you’re who did this” to Kagome it’s full of resentment because let’s face it, Kikyo actually did it and unlike Kagome without the knowledge of being played.

It’s the moment we see her jealousy of Kagome flaming.

And yes what happened to her is awful. Anyone’s spirit would be haunted by that. But returning then in the last act and becoming this kind of hero feels unearned, still, from a writing POV. And while I enjoy the send off the real Kikyo got and deserves, the constant mention and lingering impact her shadow has on the finale removes some of Kagome’s hard earned agency.

And I don’t blame Kikyo. I think the writing here went awry. I actually LOVE Inuyasha, Kikyo and all. But the way the last season’s writing glorified a resentful, dead, spirit just didn’t sit right with some of us.

I will honor Kikyo and the love, life and power wasted on the tragedy but I don’t agree with the hollow, abusive, version of her being glorified. It’s icky.

How many times does Kagome ‘Sit’ Inuyasha?

Since I always complain about the anime making a lot of things worse, including Kagome’s use of the sit command, I decided to back up what I’m saying with some actual data.

So I present to you: The ultimate Osuwari/Sit count. 

Let’s start with the manga, the real canon. I went over all the chapters, including the bonus chapter 559 / Since Then, and here are the results:

Total ‘Sit’ count in the manga: 56

Highest number of sits in a row: 8  → Reason: Inuyasha was trying to destroy the well using a boulder (chapter 23) Other times she used the beads repetitively:  4 times in chapter 249 →  After he tried to pick up a fight with her when she was in a bad mood because they met Kikyo. 4 times in chapter 339 →  After he got angry at her for being ‘too friendly’ with Koga and she called him out for also being too friendly with Kikyo. 2 times in chapter 327  →  After he went to see Kikyo alone and she thought he was lying to her when he said Kikyo wasn’t there.

I added this because people usually say Kagome sits him “every time he annoys her a little” and I don’t think that’s true. Because of this I also gathered a (subjective) list of reasons why Kagome used the command and counted the number of sits associated. 

Main reasons: he was being violent, or he was being rude/insensitive towards her or others. 

Now, let’s take a look a the anime 🙂 I didn’t rewatch the anime to make this, I watched The Ultimate Inuyasha Sit Compilation video and double checked some episodes myself. Shoutout to zeragon21 on Youtube for making this compilation, it saved me a lot of time! This includes all animated content of the Inuyasha series, so the original anime (episode 1-167) & The Final Act (episode 168-193) and then the 4 movies and the spinoff Hanyo no Yashahime. 

Total ‘Sit’ count in the anime: 154

Highest number of sits in a row: 22 → Reason: Trying to stop a drunk Sango from kissing Inuyasha

Other times she used the beads repetitively: 16 times in episode 109  →  Same as chapter 249 where she used it 4 times but the anime made it worse 11 times in episode 96 →  Because Inuyasha told Jinenji that Kagome has a “small heart” 10 times in Movie 1 →  Because Inuyasha didn’t compliment her cooking and wanted to eat ramen instead 8 times in episode 11 →  Same as chapter 23  6 times in episode 98 →  Because Inuyasha didn’t compliment her cooking, again 5 times in episode 158 →  Same as chapter 327 where she used it 2 times but the anime made it worse

Conclusion: The Inuyasha animated content added almost 100 non-canon ‘Sit’ commands! 

This is honestly, so, so much worse than I expected, lol. I also wanted to note some other differences that would explain why anime viewers find the sit command a bigger problem than manga readers. The first one being the force / intensity of it. In the anime the command will often be strong enough to create a crater, while in the manga there’s usually a “moosh” sound effect and if she uses it repetitively Inuyasha will just stay stuck in a crouched position. 

Another thing I’ve noticed while watching the compilation is that in the anime (especially the dub) Inuyasha often complains about it. He’ll scream/grunt when she sits him, call her heartless, ask her why she’s sitting him. This doesn’t really happen in the manga. He will usually say “Kagome temee!” (Damn you Kagome!) or say “Stop that!” if she’s using it repeatedly (which only happened twice).   

There’s also some added scenes in the anime that portrayed Kagome in a negative light in regards to the sit command. The first one being in the third movie “Swords of an Honorable Ruler”, where Inuyasha asked Kagome to remove the beads and she ignored him, and later she “tricked” him into putting them back on despite his complaints. The other is from the filler episodes 147-148 “The Tragic Love Song of Destiny” where Kikyo created the subjugation beads using the word “beloved” as the trigger word, but decided not to put them on him because she saw he was nice. Sunrise clearly added this to imply that Kagome should have taken the beads off Inuyasha after she realized they weren’t truly necessary (since he doesn’t want to kill her or innocents) and used this to add fuel to the love triangle discourse. In the manga the beads are never really talked about, they’re just a slapstick gag that isn’t meant to be taken too seriously, just like Sango slapping Miroku or Inuyasha punching kids. 

Conclusion: the reasons why the Sit command is worse in the anime than in the manga, is that there is almost 100 added Sits, the force of the command is way worse, Inuyasha complains about it a lot more, and Sunrise tried to make it seem like a bigger deal than it really is by adding certain scenes.

“Stay here.”

Tbh I totally forgot this moment happened and I just swooned so hard when I rewatched it today. 🥺 The way he just immediately gets her out of danger as he always does and tells her to stay in the safe spot he put her in just makes my heart swell. She’s his first priority and relishes in the role of her protector. That role of protector first meant protecting the “shard detector” ; a means to an end. But that slowly changed to him being protective of her because he wants to. Because he won’t stand for any other scenerio. 🥺

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

Excuse me while I cry over this for the next 3 days!!!!

He likes to hide it, but our boy cares a lot about what Kagome thinks. 😁

It's the way the Inukag kiss is a thousand times better in reverse Sunrise literally had one job.

Cleanup of an old edit. I love how cozy they look together. 😌