This demotivational screenshot poster is kind of anti-Kagura, even though I will mention some points I enjoy about her. So, sit back, relax, and find out why I am in two minds about this particular wind sorceress.
I know what some people think I hate Kagura or just do not care about her. This could not be farther from the truth, as I used to enjoy Kagura, even though my first impressions of her were not really that positive in the slightest, as she came off as a cruelly insidious individual. However, as time went on, I began to like her a little bit more and found her arc quite tragic, especially her whole conflict of wanting to be free as the wind and her tragic death in Inuyasha: The Final Act. I even shipped her with Sesshoumaru because I thought they looked attractive and noble together.
Unfortunately, a lot of the positive sentiments I had for Kagura were just the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses talking to me. Nowadays, as an adult man, I can see that there are many facets about Kagura I do not particularly care for, despite her being a much better female character in super stark comparison to the likes of Sango and Kagome because of one facet that has always defined her.
Before I get to the negative facets about Kagura, I would like to mention a couple of traits I still like about this particular wind sorceress.
Firstly, and this is the one that manages to make me still kind of root for her, her abilities as a wind manipulator are truly a sight to behold. The way she managed to unleash her attacks with the help of her fan such as her signature moves Dance, of the Dead, Dance of Blades, and Dance of the Dragon makes her an absolutely formidable combatant who combines gorgeous style and fine elegance with lethal accuracy. She is someone who does hold herself up really well as a fighter and I can still root for her in that aspect because I still believe her powers are fascinating and I would love to have them if I have the chance.
Secondly, she does seem to care for the people closest to her such as Kohaku and Kanna. Even with Kohaku first having his memories of Sango erased and then having them all come back to him, she was still able to show sufficient protection towards him and ensure that he does not end up getting hurt. However, the most significant person in Kagura’s life is Kanna because of how deep their bond is as “sisters” and they compliment each other perfectly with Kanna’s quiet submissiveness working really well with Kagura’s more vocal approach to expressing herself.
Finally, her death in Inuyasha: The Final Act made me feel sorry for her because she wanted to change from her evil ways. In spite of wanting to escape of Naraku and all of the crap she had to endure in order to get her freedom, it was too late for her. Even Inuyasha offered her a hand to turn from her past ways, but Kagura rejected that offer because she and Inuyasha were always bitter enemies and nothing could change that. Ergo, she did make me empathize with her a whole lot more than I thought.
This is where all of the good facets about her end, as there are certain things about this wind sorceress which grind my gears that I cannot and should not ignore.
Despite Kagura being a very capable fighter with her fan as her main weapon as well as her expanding feather, she seemed to have no problem in killing innocent people and even those who did not deserve to die, as her body count included Kouga’s comrades and was about to include Inuyasha and Kikyou in her bodycount as well while also using her Dance of Blades on Miroku and Sango in Mount Hakurei for them to be surrounded by clumps of Naraku’s flesh crawling up on them. The mere fact that she used her powers of the wind as a means of destruction and showing her strength in the most antagonistic way is what made her a pretty terrible person from the start.
Another negative facet about Kagura is that she is full of contradictions with that one defining moment in the second movie where Naraku was supposedly destroyed by Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Kirara, and Kagura believing that she is finally free. Nevertheless, the thought of serving someone else namely the villainess of the second movie, Princess Kaguya, was totally all right with her, as she gets promised her unlimited freedom. She did this by attacking Inuyasha with the help of Kaguya’s dark magic and even raided a village already in the throes of destruction. Even in the series, she was also scared of being devoured by Naraku, in spite of being treacherous towards him and calling him out on his manipulation. So much for Kagura wanting to be free, as the idea of being a slave is what she seemed to be all right with just as long as she attained what she wanted. Moreover, despite her craving for liberty, she cannot escape the mere fact that she is another one of Naraku’s incarnations, thus he is an indubitable part of her and he has her heart to prove it.
Speaking as someone who did enjoy shipping Kagura with Sesshoumaru, I now ended up feeling more indifferent to this pairing as time went on. It is not the pairing itself that bothers me these days, as I prefer Sesshoumaru to end up with Ayame as much as Inuyasha ended up with her, but what I have managed to watch again and again, take in, and have my perception completely challenged about SessKagu. The only reason why Kagura was “in love” with Sesshoumaru to begin with was because she saw him as her redeemer and believed he could set her free. In Episode 67, she threw a huge hissy-fit at Sesshoumaru because he was not interested in liberating her from Naraku’s grasp. She even stated that Inuyasha was going to be her lucky trump card in defeating Naraku and setting her free. Ergo, I can certainly nothing palpable about Sesshoumaru and Kagura as a couple anymore and the less said about how she plans to use Inuyasha and his “friends” to set her free the better.
When all is said and done, Kagura cannot even choose which side to stay on. Yes, she started out as evil, but then found out that Naraku deceived her. Instead of doing the sensible thing and turn face, she still kept up the whole nasty villainous shtick as a means to best Inuyasha and the rest of the others who dared to oppose her, even though she wanted the means to obtain her own personal freedom through both Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha whilst preferring the former. Sure, she did warm up a lot later in the series, but even then, her deeds and her betrayal on both sides cannot be ignored any longer. She could have had made up her mind, ditched Naraku for good, and just go on her own terms. But no, she was too cowardly to move on her terms and manipulated other people to try to free her.
In conclusion, while I do not completely abhor Kagura, I find her dependence on others to free her from Naraku, her total contradiction of wanting freedom but choosing to be a slave, and her constant teeter-tottering of sides, even though she knows fully well that Naraku was just using her, to be rather irritating. Nevertheless, I still pity her and would have loved to see her make better choices than trying to find the easy way out.
I hope you all enjoyed this and I will see you in the next submission. Take care and stay safe, everybody.
Kagura from Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and Sunrise.
