Main Characters (Inuyasha) | Supporting Characters (Sesshomaru) | Naraku and Incarnations | The Band of Seven | Other Villains | Filler, Movies, and Video Games Characters | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon
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The Group
- Even Evil Has Standards: With the exception of Byakuya and those who were killed way too fast for them to actually form an opinion, not even the detachments can stand Naraku. That's right, even the parts of Naraku's own body hate him; he's that much of a dick.
- Evolutionary Pressure Cooker: Naraku, a demon with a poison/corruption theme, was originally created when a wounded bandit whom Kikyo treated in a cave lusted after her, and called for nearby demons to give him the power to make her his. The cave de facto became a kodoku, with the demons devouring him and each other to birth Naraku as a conglomeration of them all. Naraku later attempts to create a powerful new body for himself through a more literal kodoku by sealing demons within a mountain and forcing them to fight it out.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Several of Naraku's detachments bear the same spider-shaped mark on their backs as he does.
- Monstrous Humanoid: Naraku is the result of Onigumo fusing with many demons, and the detachments carry independent thoughts and wield otherworldly powers. Some are completely monstrous, but others appear almost completely human.
- Our Demons Are Different: The majority are Ambiguously Human separations of the main body, which Was Once a Man, with the exception of Goshinki who is more traditionally monstrous.
- Red Right Hand: They all have the same spider shaped marking on their backs.
- Reflectionless Useless Eyes: Half of Naraku's incarnations have glazed eyes.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Most of the incarnations care only for themselves, and all except Byakuya despise Naraku. The only incarnations that have any sort of positive relationship towards the others are Kanna, Kagura and Byakuya.
Onigumo
Onigumo
Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka (JP), Paul Dobson (EN), Raúl de la Fuente (LA SP)
- Ambiguous Situation: Onigumo's iconic spider mark on his back well before he became Naraku, even before he was burned. Where it came from has never been explained.
- Asshole Victim: He was immolated by his band of thugs.
- Ax-Crazy: As revealed by Muso, he was a violent hedonist who killed whoever and whenever he wanted.
- Bandaged Face: And thankfully too, considering what could be seen of what was left was not pretty.
- Barbarian Longhair: If Muso's appearance is any indication.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Sold his soul to youkai for a new body, because he wanted to have Kikyo, the demons on the other hand had other plans.
- Deal with the Devil: Summoned thousands of evil youkai and offered them his body in exchange for a new one. The demons double crossed him and merged to form Naraku, suppressing Onigumo's consciousness.
- Distinguishing Mark: As stated above, the spider marking on his back. It remained when he transforms into Naraku and transfers to his incarnations.
- Enemy Within: For Naraku, ironically enough, as his love for Kikyo prevented Naraku from trying to kill her.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: He intended to retain control of his new demon-spawned body, but the youkai double-crossed him and suppressed his consciousness.
- The Faceless: He did have a face, but what was left of it was kept wrapped in bandages save for one eye and his mouth.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: He was obsessed with the woman who nursed him after he was horribly burned.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Was a faceless, crippled bandit who became the foundation for the main antagonist.
- Hijacking Cthulhu: Muso reveals this is what Onigumo intended to do to the youkai he summoned, but was taken over by Naraku instead.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The entire series was kicked off when he voluntarily sacrificed his humanity to yokai to become Naraku, the Big Bad, all to acquire the Shikon Jewel and sate his lust for Kikyo. Even before he became Naraku, Onigumo was far from a Nice Guy; the actions of Muso, Naraku's sixth detachment and first attempt to purge Onigumo from himself, reveal that he was a hedonistic psychopath who killed whoever and whenever he wanted.
- Love Makes You Evil: He fell obsessively in love with Kikyo when she took care of him after he was burned to almost death, but when she fell in love with Inuyasha, he sold himself to demons to get her.
- Manipulative Bastard: He manipulated a bandit into being a scapegoat.
- Meaningful Name: Onigumo translates as "ogre spider" or "demon spider". Naraku's Animal Motif is a spider.
- Pragmatic Villainy: As evil as Onigumo was, he didn't want Kikyo to die and was horrified that Naraku tried to kill her. Not actually because he thought that was too cruel, but because his wish was to make Kikyo his possession, and that wasn't possible with her dead.
- Yandere: He became obsessed with Kikyo and would often whisper to Kaede about what he wanted to do to her.
Naraku
Naraku
Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka/Toshiyuki Morikawa (JP), Paul Dobson (EN), Luis Alfonso Padilla (LA SP), Alan René Bressant (LA SP, The Final Act), Andrea Ward (IT), Emmanuel Lemire (FR)
The main villain of the series, a youkai of strange and mysterious origins. He seeks to obtain and corrupt the Shikon Jewel, and uses extremely manipulative tactics in order to pursue that goal, proving to have a hand in nearly everything bad that happens over the course of the series. Infamous for being very, very hard to kill.
- Abusive Parents: Being a Truly Single Parent to his detachments, as well as a Bad Boss, he qualifies as such.
- Actually a Doombot: Very often in the earlier arcs, where he'll left a kugustu (earth puppet) to fight the heroes instead of him.
- Adaptational Badass:
- In the anime, he has a few moments where he's less of a Dirty Coward than in the manga. An example is when he attempts to recapture Muso, Naraku fights both Muso and Inuyasha and only retreats after he re-absorbs Muso.
- In the video game, where he's a Mighty Glacier who can tank massive amounts of damage and dish out quite a bit of damage.
- All-Encompassing Mantle: Early in the series he wore a baboon-skin robe with its head acting as a combined hood and mask, and he still wears it from time to time throughout the series.
- And Then What?: Before the final battle, he admits to Byakuya that, after he kills Inuyasha and his friends, he has no idea what he'll do next.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: LOVES taunting his victims/enemies about what he'll do to them
- Animal Motifs: Spiders, he bears the mark of one on his back and it's implied the central part of his Mind Hive is the spider demon which devoured Onigumo alongside the others.
- Animalistic Abomination: His final form is a huge black spider.
- Antagonist Abilities: There's his practically limitless Healing Factor, his ability to mask his presence to hide from his foes, and his nigh-unbreakable Deflector Shield with Attack Reflector capabilities.
- Arch-Enemy: Let's count the ways, shall we?
- He was responsible for Inuyasha’s plight making Naraka his most personal foe.
- He mortally wounded Kikyo while under the guise of Inuyasha, leading to her sealing the real one for 50 years.
- He cursed Miroku's family with a void in their right hands that will eventually consume them if Naraku doesn't die first, solely to cause Miroku's bloodline eternal suffering.
- He forces Kohaku to kill all the Demon Slayers except Sango (who still gets attacked), then sics a large amount of demons on her village and blames it on Inuyasha.
- Had Kagura slaughter most of Koga's wolf tribe, then also has her frame Inuyasha for it.
- The Assimilator: He can assimilate demons and the parts he spits out can become individuals to protect him, which he can re-assimilate if they step out of line....which they pretty much always do.
- Attack Reflector: His barriers develop this ability in Mt. Hakurei.
- Bad Boss: He constantly threatens his subordinates/detachments with death should they defy him, once tortured Kagura by squeezing her disembodied heart in his hands, and personally killed Kanna as part of a Suicide Mission he put her on. Needless to say, quite a few of his detachments turn on or try to turn on him throughout the series, with Byakuya being the only one to stay loyal to him; his habit of this is such that he correctly predicts ahead of time that both Hakudoshi and the Infant would eventually try to betray him.
- Badass Longcoat: After Mount Hakurei he forms one and it becomes part of his new image as a far more physical villain than he's been before.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: When he's exposed and not in Body Horror form.
- Beyond Redemption: Because he still possesses Onigumo's human heart, Kikyo initially believed there was a possibility Naraku could be redeemed. When he nearly kills her at Mt. Hakurei and Kagome saves her, Kikyo realizes she was wrong and Naraku is beyond any hope of redemption.
- Big Bad: He's the primary villain the heroes face because his Evil Plan to corrupt the Sacred Jewel infects every other villain and most of their adventures. Until the Sacred Jewel (and the Composite Youkai that corrupted it) reveals itself to be the true evil.
- Black Magic: How he create replicas via voodoo like dolls and combine demons to merge with himself in order to separate.
- Body Horror: Whenever he tries to reform, it is usually a mashup of the demons he's absorbed so far.
- Body of Bodies: His half-demon form during his period of weakness results in a writhing pile of randomly placed demonic body parts with his human head dangling in the middle of the mess. At one point in order to obtain a stronger body he performs a Kodoku spell: thousands of fierce demons fight inside a cave in a mountain, and the winner absorbs and merges with the losers, with Naraku absorbing the surviving demon himself. Even his full-demon form is composed of different parts.
- Bond Breaker: His entire schtick when it comes to his enemies is this trope. He looks for bonds of love and friendship and does his best to degrade and destroy them by any means possible, often by turning allies against each other.
- Boomerang Bigot: He seems to hate half-demons, despite being one himself: When Kikyo refers to him as a half-demon, he seems offended by the idea.
- Break Them by Talking: He loves to give this to whoever is listening. They normally end with a Shut Up, Hannibal!.
- The Chessmaster: Plays with everyone, sometimes so he can get more powerful, sometimes to get rid of his enemies, and sometimes just For the Evulz.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He has a rather nasty tendency to double-cross those who help him, typically by assimilating them. Case in point: he gives Sesshomaru a human arm which he can use as a Borrowed Biometric Bypass to wield the Tessaiga, said arm later spontaneously combusting and forcing Sesshomaru to cut it off. Tsubaki and Princess Abi also learn not to trust Naraku... the hard way.
- Combat Tentacles: He can produce regenerative ones.
- The Corrupter: He constantly tries to do this to others, either for practical purposes (like tainting the Shikon Jewel) or just because he can. At one point, he tries to force Kagome to choose between killing the priestess he has mind-controlled (which would allegedly both condemn the priestess to hell and corrupt Kagome's heart for killing her knowing that) or being killed by her; at another, he tries to get Sango to kill Rin in order to kill him, which is also the only way to save Miroku's life — only Naraku wouldn't have died anyway because she was only talking to an illusion of himself.
- Crazy-Prepared: He deliberately made the Infant a helpless baby because he correctly predicted he would try to turn on him.
- Deader than Dead: Refused to die despite having his body obliterated repeatedly. It takes wishing his spirit out of existence using the Shikon Jewel to finally destroy him.
- Demonic Possession: Is the result of hundreds of youkai devouring and merging with Onigumo's body.
- Demoted to Extra: In all four films; he only physically appears in the second one, and even then, he finds himself on the "Thou" side of Eviler than Thou when he tries to take on Kaguya.
- Detachment Combat: Is able to control all of his body parts at all times, even when severed.
- Dirty Coward: Before he Took a Level in Badass. He often uses demonic puppets of himself to fight Inuyasha and co. without having to worry about his own safety, and when he doesn't use them, he either sends his minions after them or manipulates others into fighting for him. Whenever he does fight on his own, he'll almost always make a Villain: Exit, Stage Left as soon as he starts losing.
- Discard and Draw: This is how he always maintains an edge in personal combat: he'll frequently rid his body of demons that are of no use to him, and absorb new ones with stronger powers in turn.
- Divide and Conquer: He always tries to split the heroes, trying to put them against each other, or makes other villains fight them instead, including making detachments of himself to distract them.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- For one, he, by his own admission, is unable to understand why, even after everything he made the Brainwashed and Crazy Kohaku do, Sango simply will not kill him even to save her own life. On another occasion, he remarks that the fact that Inuyasha and co. would show mercy to Kanna, whom he had sent on a Suicide Mission against them, actually makes him sick.
- Subverted in the final arc. Kagome points out that he must have a pretty solid understanding of human bonds and their significance to successfully manipulate people as easily as he does, and that he could only do that because he is part human. Both she and Inuyasha declare that this makes his deeds especially unforgivable since he must have known exactly what he was doing to his victims. It's interesting that he was never really aware that the vestiges of humanity he tried so hard to get rid of were, in fact, as much of an asset to him as they were to Inuyasha.
- Evil Counterpart:
- To Inuyasha, both are half-demons that desired to become full demons in order to throw away their human weakness. However, while Inuyasha eventually embraced both sides of his heritage and used it to his advantage to form bonds with individuals of both species, Naraku destroyed the bonds of others, human and youkai alike, to amuse himself; during their final battle, Inuyasha explicitly states that this is one of the reasons Naraku completely disgusts him.
- Could also be seen as one to Kikyo, being a very powerful evil force to her good one, while both of them still struggle with the fact that they have human feelings. Both their personality stats in the profile book and their interactions with Saint Hakushin play into this.
- Evil Evolves: Each appearance shows a new form all the way to the climax. It's part of his Evil Plan. The form he took at the end of the Band of Seven arc was by far the most obvious point to this trope.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: At one point, he deliberately awakens Ryukotsusei, the dragon daiyokai who slew Inuyasha's father, in an attempt to get him to kill Inuyasha by invoking Sins of Our Fathers. Instead, Ryukotsusei attacks Naraku instead before choosing to fight Inuyasha out of boredom anyway; as usual, Naraku was Actually a Doombot.
- Evil Is Petty: His only real motivation is his love/hate feelings for Kikyo and pure hatred for Inuyasha, although he doesn't want to admit that to himself. Even after discarding his human feelings and obtaining the Shikon Jewel, he decided the best possible use for the Jewel's power was using it to finally be rid of Inuyasha and his friends, openly admitting that he has no real idea of what to do afterwards. But he still ruins or attempts to ruin lives of seemingly everyone he encounters For the Evulz.
- Evil Plan: He wants to become a powerful full youkai using the complete tainted Shikon Jewel, but his own desire for Kikyo gets in the way.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Especially in the English dub.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Again, Paul Dobson in the English dub makes his voice both deep and harsh.
- Eviler than Thou: He's constantly employing lesser villains to help him out and ultimately they die, sometimes due to his direct influence.
- The Infant and Hakudoshi both conspired to overthrow him and take his place as the Big Bad, creating the artificial assimilating demon Moryomaru for that purpose. Naraku is absorbed and seemingly killed by Moryomaru... but it ultimately transpires that he let Moryomaru do so in order to absorb him from the inside out. The Infant is ultimately reabsorbed, whereas Hakudoshi has the undignified honor of being outright abandoned to die at Inuyasha and co.'s hands because he thought openly gloating about his intent to betray Naraku was a good idea.
- In the second Non-Serial Movie, he actually ends up on the "Thou" side of the equation. He's seemingly killed during the film's opening act, but it turns out he faked it to lure Kaguya, the film's Big Bad, out of hiding so he could kill her and steal her powers, and thus he returns at the climax alive and well. Nonetheless, Kaguya proves the greater evil than Naraku this round and sends him packing. When he appears yet again to absorb her while she's distracted, he's blasted with a Wind Scar and decides to call it quits.
- Extra Eyes: After his upgrade in Mt. Hakurei, he has one eye on his chest and one eye on each hand.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: See above.
- Face Death with Dignity: Surprisingly, when he lies mortally wounded by Kagome's arrow and comes to the realization he was a pawn to the Jewel itself all along, he takes it rather well, maintaining a calm tone while accepting his fate.
- The Faceless: Prior to taking Kagewaki's appearance, he never removes his baboon mask. It was probably best not known what was under there.
- Faux Affably Evil: He speaks politely, but it's obvious that it's merely a sign of mockery, somewhat justified as his current disguise was a noble who used royal dialect. After he Took a Level in Badass during the climax of the Mt. Hakurei arc, he drops the act completely in favor of being a Smug Super.
- Flight: He uses clouds then self flight once he gets rid of his human heart.
- Foil: For Inuyasha. Both are half-demons, but Naraku was a human who merged with demons. Not only that, but while both have periods of weakness, Naraku can choose when that happens and it's when he's in the process of making himself stronger. Inuyasha's turns him human for one night each month. Both also want power. But while Inuyasha abandons his quest for strength and opts to help his friends, Naraku gains power solely for his own desires.
- For the Evulz: His main personality trait. Naraku has no plans to Take Over the World or anything big like that; he just wants to ruin the lives of everyone and everything he encounters simply because he can. Everything he does, from trying to purge his human heart and emotions to gathering the Shikon Jewel, is specifically geared towards doing so.
- Frame-Up: On three different occasions, he tries to frame Inuyasha for his own crimes in order to trick people into trying to kill Inuyasha for him; first, with the destruction of Sango's hometown and family, and then with the slaughter of Koga's packmates. Both times, they eventually discover the truth and turn their wrath on Naraku. Of course, his most famous being when he turned Inuyasha and Kikyo against each other by disguising himself as the other to attack them.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Initially a crippled bandit who could only move his eyes and mouth whose lust for Kikyo led him to form a contract with demons and become Naraku, one of the most powerful and vicious beings. The anime implies that the mind that eventually becomes Naraku comes from a tiny spider demon that Onigumo makes a deal with.
- Fusion Dance: He's the result of a human merging with hundreds of youkai. And he's able to separate parts of them at will except for the human part since it's what keeps it all together, although in Mt. Hakurei he managed to at least separate his human heart and discard its human feelings.
- Giant Spider: His insignia, as well as the outer shell of his final form.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has the same spider-shaped markings on his back, part of the human Onigumo.
- Grand Theft Me: The spider yokai that the human Onigumo summoned pulled this on him. When absorbed by his incarnations' creation, he just reverses the process on him.
- Half-Human Hybrid: He tries to get rid of his human part and seems to succeed in Mt. Hakurei but eventually reabsorbs it.
- Hated by All: Just about every named character in the entire series completely despises him and wants nothing more than his death, including his detachments, which are explicitly stated to be spawned from his own flesh and spare body parts. It's to the extent that, when he spawns the Infant, he correctly predicts that it will eventually turn on him. His final detachment, Byakuya, is literally the only being in the series to have any kind of tolerance for him at all.
- Hero Killer: He murdered Kikyo. Twice.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Pretty much any antagonist the heroes ever run into can be traced back to Naraku somehow.
- Hope Crusher: Naraku loves making people feel despair, and he will carefully craft schemes that are designed to make them as miserable as possible. This is partially out of genuine sadism, but also because he wishes to taint the Shikon Jewel.
- Hostage Situation: Used characters as hostages quite often. Usually Kohaku as a bargaining chip to manipulate Sango or Rin so Sesshomaru won't attack.
- I Have Your Wife: Had Kohaku for the longest time, till the boy escaped.
- I Lied: A very common tactic in his arsenal. Create horrible situation between two parties, tell one party their troubles will be over if said party betrays the other, reveals that he lied around the time he gets what he wants.
- Invincible Villain: While Naraku was fairly weak at the start, once he gains the ability to assimilate more demons and create detachments he becomes this. Especially after Mount Hakurei, he continued to become more and more invincible and his plans becoming more and more ridiculously perfect when beforehand, he failed a great deal of the time. Kagome had to use the Shikon Jewel to wish him out of existence completely just for him to finally die.
- It's All About Me: Naraku doesn't care about anyone or anything but himself. Everyone around him, his detachments included, are nothing but pawns and stepping stones to him and his quest for power and dominance.
- Jekyll & Hyde: Is the Hyde to Onigumo - the cruder, more hedonistic bandit who lusts for Kikyo - Jekyll.
- Jerkass: And that is just putting it in the lightest way possible. He constantly goes above and beyond to cause humans and youkai alive pain simply for the sake of it.
- Joker Immunity: No matter what upgrades Inuyasha and co. got, and how many times they managed to corner him, Naraku always managed to escape and come back, still causing trouble after several hundred issues despite half of feudal Japan wanting his head. Rumiko Takahashi knew the fans wouldn't believe he would be gone unless he was Deader than Dead, so Kagome wishes what was left of his spirit out of existence along with the Shikon Jewel.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: He became an Invincible Villain over time, and repeatedly managed to avoid death despite virtually every named character in the series being out for his blood. Then came the Grand Finale, where he's torn apart by Inuyasha's Meido Zangetsuha, and finally wished out of existence completely by Kagome and the Shikon Jewel.
- Kick the Dog: Naraku never stops doing horribly cruel things to everyone he come across, human and yokai alike, just to show what an asshole he can be. Causing pain isn't just a means to an end for him; it's the means and the ends.
- His first act upon creation is to mortally wound Kikyo and trick both herself and Inuyasha into thinking they betrayed and never loved the other.
- One of his atrocities committed during the 50-year Time Skip was cursing Miroku's grandfather with the Wind Tunnel, a hereditary black hole in the palm that eventually consumes them, solely to cause his bloodline eternal suffering.
- After slaughtering Sango's hometown and village, he resurrects Kohaku to use as a weapon against her. When she brings him the Tessaiga in an effort to bargain for Kohaku being freed, Naraku instead forces him to attack and critically injure Sango, hoping to provoke her into killing her own brother. This act was so heinous that Kagome, pushed to her Rage Breaking Point, shot him up with sacred arrows and reduced him to a disembodied head.
- In the anime it's taken to another level when 15 years ago, he tries to kill Hitomiko, a little girl with strong spiritual powers just because she was a threat. When that failed, he kills her friends and parental guardian. Notable in that's it's jarring for someone who usually intends to have his ends lead to the Sacred Jewel's corruption, would just kill someone just because they existed.
- Kill and Replace: His human form is based on a human nobleman named Hitomi Kagewaki who he killed and took the identity of.
- Knight of Cerebus: After he's mentioned, the story (as well as any plot involving him) becomes much more Darker and Edgier.
- Lack of Empathy: He has absolutely zero empathy for anyone or anything but himself. To him, all other beings are either food to get stronger, pawns to be manipulated, entertainment to torment and kill, or some combination of the three.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Always trying to make everyone kill each other.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: He often uses Combat Tentacles as well as other Body Horror powers, especially after Mt. Hakurei.
- Love Makes You Evil: As evil as he is, he still can't be rid of his obsession with Kikyo for showing him kindness and care when was crippled as the human Onigumo. Even after obtaining the Shikon Jewel, he still can't reach his goals of full demonhood because his subconscious wish for Kikyo's love holds him back, which is lampshaded by Kagome as part of an Armor Piercing Speech. At the very end, Naraku laments he truly wished for Kikyo's love and care before being destroyed for good.
- Manipulative Bastard: Naraku excels at corrupting people to his side, frequently using false promises to lull humans and demons into playing to his tune before disposing of them or leading them to their deaths. He's not even above manipulating his incarnations.
- Master of Illusion: Early on he used some vines that show the victims the negative aspects of their hearts.
- Meaningful Name: Naraku (奈落) means Hell in Buddhism.
- Merger of Souls: Naraku was created when thousands of youkai devoured the deranged and perverse thief (and Kikyo's Stalker with a Crush) Onigumo and fused together. However, the demons suppressed Onigumo's consciousness and went on to try to kill Kikyo.
- Motive Decay: He's changed motives so many times that by the end, he was just evil for the sake of being evil. Initially, he wanted to use the Shikon Jewel to become a powerful full-fledged youkai, so his goal is getting all the shards of the Jewel. But then, he was somewhat driven by his lust for Kikyo and hatred for Inuyasha, both coming from his human heart, so his goal becomes getting rid of that. He succeeds in separating his physical heart and discarding his feelings for Kikyo, so now his goal changes to killing her. But it turns out he needs both his heart and feelings to do this so the goal becomes reabsorbing them, and when he does, he finally kills her. In the end, he succeeds in getting the whole Shikon Jewel, but he neither absorbs it nor does he wish on it, he just decides to use it to kill his enemies. Naraku himself admits he's not sure what comes next after he's done that. Yes, that's right - he spends most of the series trying to get the Shikon Jewel, and once he finally has it, he's not sure what to do with it!
- Mr. Fanservice: When not in his Body Horror form.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast:"Naraku" refers to the Buddhist version of hell
- Never My Fault: More than once, when someone calls him out on his atrocities, he refuses any blame, often blaming his victims for the misfortune he himself caused them.
- In regards to his manipulation of Inuyasha and Kikyo, he tells them point-blank that what happened to them was their own fault because they didn't trust each other enough to see through his deception.
- When Inuyasha demands that Naraku admit that he was the one who led the attack on Sango's village for the jewel shards Sango had acquired, Naraku replies that all he did was tell the demons that the village guard happened to be thin that day, and it's the villagers' own fault for not being better prepared.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Almost every possible variation depending on which form his body has currently taken.
- One-Winged Angel:
- Has a Bishōnen Line variation of the Evil Evolves, his most notable is becoming a full demon in a suit of demonic armor with three dragon tails with a long coat.
- His body becomes scorpion like with Combat Tentacles when fighting Moryomaru.
- Takes the form of a spider, a dark, armored form with a spider web and red skinned demon in the final battle.
- Orcus on His Throne: After the death of Kikyo and the Shikon Jewel vanishing from the world, he was apparently content to sit around for fifty years waiting for the Jewel to reappear. In the present, especially in later story arcs, he tends to sit back and let his minions do his dirty work. The reason for this is largely because he's a Dirty Coward who's afraid to fight his enemies directly.
- Outside-Context Problem: Arguably, the reason why his plot to put Inu Yasha and Kikyo against each other worked so smoothly without suspecting the work of another Youkai: most of the Youkai that came for the Jewel were little more than feral brutes, while more powerful Youkai with greater powers shows no real interest in it or otherwise shows little understanding of humans as a whole. Naraku has both the powers far superior to those of regular Youkai seeking for the Shikon Jewel, enough human heart to understand humans better and most of all, a personal grudge against Kikyo regardless of her role as the guardian of the Shikon Jewel. It is implied that never before Kikyo had to deal with a Youkai with such a deadly combination at his disposal.
- Poison Is Corrosive: His poison can dissolve things like the Inu no Taisho's fang that kept Ryukotsusei in check. It doesn't take long for the humans in his castle to be reduced to barren skeletons from his venom.
- Poisonous Person: His body is made of deadly miasma. At one time, Kirara got seriously poisoned after biting him.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: He's Faux Affably Evil, acting refined and regal even while talking about how he killed or is about to kill someone. This contrasts him with Inuyasha, a foul-mouthed, Jerk with a Heart of Gold with No Social Skills who's firmly in the Good Is Not Nice camp.
- Put on a Bus: A rare self-imposed version. When he retreats to Mt.Hakurei, to get stronger over many months, he disappears for several dozen episodes.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: He's the Big Bad and when his eyes glow, true nastiness is about to be unleashed.
- Satanic Archetype: Originally a human, Naraku forsook his humanity to become a demon after giving in to his jealousy over Kikyo. He spends much of his time manipulating the demons to terrorize feudal Japan, being responsible for virtually everything bad happening in the series. Even his name reflects it, as it means Abyss or even Hell.
- Scars Are Forever: The spider scar on his back. On one occasion, he actually cut the flesh of his own back off in an attempt to get rid of said scar; the skin grew back, scar and all, as though nothing had happened.
- Shadow Archetype: In many ways, he represents what Inuyasha could have become had he never embraced his human half and given up on his desire to become a full-fledged yokai using the Shikon Jewel. During the final battle, Inuyasha acknowledges this and states outright it's one of many reasons he utterly despises Naraku.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Kagewaki's appearance.
- Shapeshifting Trickster: A very dark one. His most pronounced example is to take Inuyasha's form moments after his own birth to mortally wound Kikyo in the hopes of having her kill Inuyasha, wish upon the Jewel to live on and be Naraku's forever.
- Sissy Villain: Long hair, androgynous features... shapeshifted himself into a woman to distract Miroku's grandfather and into Kikyo to distract Inuyasha.
- Smug Snake: While he's definitely a powerful and legitimate threat, Naraku is still very arrogant and overconfident, and ends up cornered many times. For example, when Inuyasha uses his Red Tessaiga to destroy his barrier and shred him, Naraku is completely shocked and ends up fleeing.
- Smug Super: Especially after Mt. Hakurei when his power upgrades make him a far more physical threat. Naraku becomes far more boisterous in combat and while he can't match Inuyasha himself, he enjoys lording his power over other demons he casually kills and devours.
- The Sociopath: As a conglomerate consciousness, nothing about Naraku's psychology is normal, but he loves to manipulate people, play with their feelings and/or corrupt them, using them and later discarding them, without any remorse whatsoever. Everything he does is either to obtain power for himself, or just to ruin people's lives for the hell of it.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Naraku was formed from the collective consciousness of the yokai Onigumo summoned, and was revealed to have pulled this on Onigumo, who had been hoping to retain control of his new body.
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Near the end, he employs two particularly devious instances of this:
- In one, he possesses a priestess and has her attack Kagome, trying to force Kagome to choose between allowing herself to be killed or killing the priestess in self-defense. However, because the priestess is currently committing evil under Demonic Possession, she will apparently be condemned to hell if Kagome kills her in this state; and if Kagome willingly chooses to kill her knowing this, she will lose her holy powers and cease to be a threat to Naraku anyway. Kagome manages to find a way to exorcise the priestess of Naraku's possession, therefore creating a third option.
- In the other, Naraku has the protagonists split up within the final dungeon. He shows the warrior Sango that Miroku, is about to sacrifice himself to try to destroy Naraku, without realizing that it is only an illusion of Naraku that he would destroy. He uses Rin as a Human Shield and tries to get Sango to kill Rin in order to destroy him and save Miroku, which would further corrupt the sacred Shikon Jewel with darkness (as well as probably turn Sesshomaru against Sango and possibly the rest of the protagonists). To top it all off, unbeknownst to her, the Naraku speaking to Sango is actually just another illusion, so Sango wouldn't actually hurt him or save Miroku at all. The plan successfully tricks her into trying to sacrifice Rin, contributing to the corruption of the jewel, although the other protagonists manage to save Rin, and Sesshomaru remains focused on Naraku as the enemy, even refusing the offer to let him kill her as penance.
- Super Smoke: He can surround himself with and transform his body into a cloud of miasma, and uses it to escape.
- Took a Level in Badass: A villainous example who takes advantage of absorbing and throwing out demonic parts he needs or doesn't need so he becomes more powerful.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Twice, both Tekkei and Moryomaru try to devour him, only for it to bite them in the back, especially for the latter.
- Transhuman Treachery: His original self, Onigumo, gives up his body to demons in order to move again and be able to get Kikyo. What happens next isn't part of his original plan.
- Truly Single Parent: Of all his detachments.
- Unskilled, but Strong: While Naraku has a wide variety of abilities (tentacles, miasma, barriers), he has little combat experience and tends to make mistakes in battle.
- Unwitting Pawn To the Shikon Jewel, the very object he covets is really manipulating him to replace the demon soul within itself so it may live on while he and Kagome do battle within it forever.
- Villain Has a Point: When Inuyasha is outraged at him for betraying Princess Abi and Bankotsu, both times, Naraku makes a valid point when he retorts that Inuyasha has little room to talk considering he personally killed Bankotsu and fully intended to do the same to Abi.
- Villainous Breakdown: After getting a rather spot on Armor-Piercing Question and statement from Kagome and Inuyasha, his long standing calm demeanor begins to shatter and he starts to lose it.
- Villainous Crush: On Kikyo, thanks to his human heart. He tries to get rid of it.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: When he's about to lose, he'll make an escape.
- Virtue Is Weakness: Prior to Kanna's death. He outright says that the fact that Inuyasha and his companions would be merciful to Kanna, despite the fact that he sent her on a Suicide Mission to kill them, actually makes him sick. Aside from that, a big part of his motivation throughout the series is to discard his human heart and emotions, like Onigumo's lingering lust for Kikyo, to become the ultimate yokai and purge his human weaknesses.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: In order to confuse and manipulate people in his way. Although he only used it in flashbacks.
- Was Once a Man: Was once a lowly bandit named Onigumo till he made a Deal with the Devil to create the identity known as Naraku.
- The Worm That Walks: Naraku takes forms that please him but in reality his body is a mess of the lesser Youkai which devoured Onigumo.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Kohaku who he intends to kill to get his Jewel shard. And he does.
- In the anime, he tried to kill a young priestess named Hitomiko, merely because she posed a threat. He was unable to, but killed other children instead.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: Naraku is constantly plagued by a spider-shaped scar on his back, a constant and infuriating reminder that Onigumo is a part of him he can't be rid of. In one instance, Naraku takes a blade to his back and carves it off his body just to feel sane, and the gory action is only shown in silhouette. Even so, the mark always grows back.
- Yandere: While Naraku himself wants to kill Kikyou, the remnant of Onigumo within him loves her and prevents him from doing so. Both sides want to kill InuYasha.
Kanna
Kanna
Voiced by: Yukana (JP), Janyse Jaud (EN), Lupita Leal (LA SP), Diana Nolan (LA SP The Final Act), Gemma Donati (IT)
Kanna is Naraku's first incarnation. She appears to be an emotionless young girl with white hair, and uses a mirror which can monitor distant events, trap souls, and reflect energy back onto attackers.
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime build up her emotion more steadily than the manga up to a point that she has extra part of an episode in The Final Act for herself.
- Ambiguously Evil: While she serves Naraku, Kanna is never seen doing anything heinously evil, except perharps stealing souls.
- Attack Reflector: Her mirror bounces opponents' attacks back at them.
- Black Eyes of Evil: As black as the void her demonic nature represents. It also serves to emphasize her (mostly) emotionless state.
- Creepy Child: Her unnatural appearance and quiet nature even creeped out Naraku's other detachments.
- Emotionless Girl: She looks like a very straight example but it ends being subverted: Kanna seemed to miss Kagura, she didn't want to die, wanted to be free, and ultimately betrayed Naraku, showing that she did have emotions.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She and Kagura were the only ones of Naraku's detachments that truly got along well. Kanna always warned Kagura that she shouldn't defy Naraku's words, showing that she cared for Kagura. When Naraku was believed to be dead in the second movie, the two remained together, despite having no real reason to do so. And after Kagura died, Kanna mourned her sister's death and possibly it was this that made her betray Naraku.
- Flower Motifs: In the anime, a reference to her freedom.
- Hime Cut: Her hairstyle is perfect for this trope (the length, sidelocks, even bangs) and she certainly has the serenity associated with the trope.
- I Can't Sense Their Presence: She has no scent or aura; the only way to detect Kanna is with the naked eye.
- Light Is Not Good: Has white hair, wears a white kimono... and is one of Naraku's detachments.
- Little Big Sister: She's the first of Naraku's creations, but she looks like a little girl while most of her younger "siblings" look older.
- Little Miss Badass: Even though she is a little girl, we must never forget that both in her first and last battle with Inuyasha she was very close to killing him.
- Magic Mirror: Her weapon, which she uses to steal souls. It also turns into a monstrous demon that she is linked to.
- Mystical White Hair: The kind of hair she has.
- No-Sell: As she's composed of void, she has no demonic aura; thus, Mt. Hakurei's purity has no effect on her.
- Power of the Void: She's composed of void. As a result, there's no way to sense Kanna except with the naked eye; not even Inuyasha can sniff her out.
- Punch-Clock Villain: While she serves Naraku, Kanna never displays the sadism, bloodlust or backstabbing the other detachments show. She only does what she does because Naraku orders her. This certainly explains why the protagonists never show any perceived antagonism towards her.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: She's an Artificial Human created by the main antagonist, has white hair and pale skin, and lacks emotions.
- The Stoic: Especially compared to her mentally unstable or manipulative siblings, she shows no emotion till the climax.
- Sympathy for the Devil: The protagonists, especially Kagome, felt sympathy for her after realizing that she deep down had feelings. Byakuya also felt bad for her.
- Undying Loyalty: To Naraku. Inuyasha's group is shocked by the realization that her loyalty to Naraku is so extreme she'll die for him. Then Kagome learns Kanna used her death to cover a last minute betrayal to reveal to Kagome what Naraku's Achilles' Heel is for ordering her death soon after obtaining her emotion.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Kanna's mirror has the power of reflecting energy attacks and absorbing souls. However, she cannot reflect an attack that is made up of souls or powered by souls, such as Kagome's arrows: Her mirror will absorb it despite her wishes otherwise.
- White Hair, Black Heart: She has white hair and is a servant of Naraku, though she is likely the least evil of them all.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Her mirror absorbs souls.
Kagura
Kagura
Voiced by: Izumi Oogami (JP), Janyse Jaud (EN), Diana Pérez (LA SP), Cinzia De Carolis (IT), Isabelle Bouchemaa (FR)
Kagura is Naraku's second incarnation. She has power over wind, and unlike Kanna is more rebellious, with a will of her own. She serves Naraku only because he can kill her at any time, and hopes to be free of him someday.
- Animal Motifs: The Spider, inherited from her "father"
- Animate Dead: Her wind can do this
- Attack Reflector: In Mt. Hakurei, Kagura uses her wind powers to send Sango's Hiraikotsu back at her.
- Anti-Hero: Type IV by the end of her Character Development.
- Anti-Villain: She starts off as an antagonist, but her resentment towards Naraku drives her to attempt a Heel–Face Turn.
- Big Sister Instinct: Before her death, she became very protective towards Kohaku; in the same way that his real sister Sango is. She also gets along fairly well with Kanna, though the same can't be said for any of her other "siblings".
- Black Mage: She is a necromancer who can also manipulate the wind.
- Blow You Away: Can manipulate the wind, so much that in her first appearance she could even control the wind necessary for the Wind Scar.
- Broken Bird: She doesn't want to serve Naraku or even necessarily be evil, but he literally holds her heart in his hand.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When she comes back looking for Sesshomaru a second time, she finds only Jaken and Rin standing alone. Jaken then accuses Kagura of trying to kidnap Rin again, to which Kagura responds: "Huh? Did I ever do that?"
- Clothing Damage: The first time she fights Inuyasha, the Wind Scar slices her top to shreds, which leads to her revealing the spider scar on her back. It happens a second time in the manga when she's blasted in the chest by Goryomaru's "light", which leaves her bare-chested... and with a gaping hole in the middle of her chest.
- Combat Hand Fan: Her weapon of choice. She can use this to enhance her wind attacks.
- Dark Action Girl: A beautiful, morally ambiguous woman who dominates on the battlefield.
- Deadpan Snarker: Makes blase comments about what Naraku is doing and is very sarcastic.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Naraku frequently uses her like a field leader for tasks he needs complete and while she appears like his Dragon for some time, she's in fact only serving him because he holds her heart and is quite creative in looking for a way to have him killed so that she can be free.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Like with Kanna, the two seem to actually care for each other. While Kagura tends to have some unflattering comment or thinks about how much she dislikes her "siblings", the most she did with Kanna was think about how creepy she was, and that was just in he latter's introduction. The two are often seen together, even in the second movie, when Naraku faked his death, they remained together.
- Feet-First Introduction: In the anime adaptation.
- Femme Fatale: Of the morally conflicted type.
- Forced into Evil: Subverted. She only serves Naraku because he holds her heart in his hands, but she definitely enjoys fighting and wreaking havoc, at least until Character Development kicks in.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: She has Naraku's trademark spider mark on her back.
- Hot Witch: A very attractive wind user and necromancer.
- I Die Free: Her one wish was to be free from Naraku's control. She gets it, but is fatally wounded with her one solace in that Sesshoumaru was with her when she died.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: By the end of her Character Development.
- Lady of Black Magic: Her powerful wind spells and necromancy and elegant demeanor make her one.
- Lady of War: A powerful and graceful fighter with her Combat Hand Fan. Her attacks are even dance-based.
- I Let You Win: When she fights Inuyasha to keep him from joining Sesshoumaru's fight with Naraku, she makes just enough effort to not seem a traitor (Inuyasha even notes that her wind blades have no strength behind them) and throws the gauntlet as soon as she can.
- Implied Love Interest: She seemed to develop a crush on Sesshomaru. How he felt about her is the topic of fandom debate.
- Magic Dance: How her attacks are named after dances.
- Magical Barefooter: Kagura is a powerful necromancer and sorceress who's never worn a shoe or sandal in her life.
- Meaningful Name: Kagura is a type of ritual dance in Shinto, fitting for a fan dancer like Kagura.
- Ms. Fanservice: In her first battle with Inuyasha her kimono was shredded by the Wind Scar, leaving her topless. This is far from the last time she ends up with her clothes destroyed, though at least the second time in the manga, the effect is diminished by her gaping wound.
- Necromancer: Her "Shikabane no Mai" (Dance of Corpses)/"Dance of the Dead", which she uses to manipulate dead people and even skeletons. At one point she uses the highest advantage this technique can give her by manipulating the fragmented corpses so that they won't stop attacking until they're dust. She can also animate corpses to make them seem alive for a long time, though they inevitably dissolve into foam as soon as she's done with them.
- Pet the Dog: Her later attitude towards Kohaku.
- Razor Wind: The usual, bullet like version (known as "Fujin no Mai", Wind Blades Dance/"Dance of Blades") and the tornado-shaped version (Ryuuja no Mai, Dragon-Serpent Dance).
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. Although introduced as a villain, Character Development makes her an Anti-Villain who tries to help Inuyasha's group, supports Sesshoumaru, and who ends up having an Heroic Sacrifice to save Kohaku's life.
- Secret-Keeper: She finds out about Inuyasha's human night, but she never tells Naraku when it is or uses it against him.
- Soul Jar: Her heart is held by Naraku allowing him to remotely kill her at will. He uses this to force her compliance and occasionally to remind/warn her by squeezing it.
- Tragic Villain: She's forced to follow his orders because he holds her heart, stifling any attempts to betray him or be free like the wind. Naraku finally gives her her heart, only to immediately kill her.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Naraku, knowing that she had briefly teamed up with Hakudoshi for independence from him, returns her heart, the only thing keeping her under his command... then promptly stabs her and pumps her full of miasma, which slowly kills her because her heart is back in her body.
Goshinki
Goshinki
Voiced by: Masaharu Satoh (JP), Michael Kopsa (EN), Roberto Mendiola (LA SP), Mario Bombardieri (IT)
- Back from the Dead: Subverted, Sesshoumaru revives his head so that Kaijimbo could forge a top-quality sword (Tokijin) from his fangs. He doesn't seem to regain consciousness though, and it's unknown what happened to him afterwards.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Has large, curved bones coming out of his arms.
- Break Them by Talking: Does this is to a pair of little siblings by describing how he ate their parents. Later he does this to the heroes, telling them how their tactics won't work and why.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Thanks to his Psychic Powers, he can predict attacks and counter them. Unfortunately for him, when Inuyasha's Superpowered Evil Side is awakened, Goshinki's powers are rendered useless, since Demon!Inuyasha's only coherent thoughts are Unstoppable Rage and bloodlust.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Inflicts one to Inuyasha's group thanks to his superior mind-reading powers.
- Establishing Character Moment: Breaks down a stable and gorges on the horses, and when the villagers spot him, he murders and eats them too. When Kagura thinks he's a disgusting demon who eats like a pig, he mockingly asks her if she really thinks so of him, revealing his true powers.
- Evil Sounds Deep: with an addition of Voice of the Legion in the dub.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: First Inuyasha rips his arm off, then he proceeds to claw at him so hard he rends him to pieces in one blow, tearing his spine out of his body.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Destroying Tessaiga allowed him to severely injure Inuyasha, but also awakens his Superpowered Evil Side.
- Horned Humanoid: It is implied that his appearance is based more on the assimilated demons than Naraku himself.
- It Can Think: Kagura initially thinks that he's just a mindless monster who eats like a pig until Goshinki reveals that he can read her thoughts. During his battle against the heroes, he also displays how smart he is.
- Kick the Dog: Reads a couple of kids' minds in order to gloat over how he ate their parents.
- Knight of Cerebus: The first demon to force Inuyasha's demon blood to awaken and to break the Tessaiga, also one of the first demons to have their cruelty played completely seriously and without having any redeeming traits.
- Leave No Survivors: Naraku ordered him to raid a village and kill everyone to lure out Inuyasha, and, in the anime, Goshhinki tells Kagura he have no intention of stopping until he has slain and eaten all living beings in the area, even dogs, horses and poultry.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite being quite big, he's very fast, as lampshaded by him after reading Inuyasha's thoughts. He's also powerful enough to break Tessaiga with a single bite.
- Mind Rape: Tries it with his Mind Reading powers.
- Mind Reading: How he predicts attacks, he can do some nasty Mind Rape and Breaking Speech to his victims.
- Meaningful Name: His name can be read as "Mind-Reading Ogre".
- Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Averted. The least humanoid incarnation ended up being one of the most dangerous.
- Non-Standard Character Design: To further demonstrate his Knight of Cerebus status, Goshinki is heavily shaded unlike most of the other characters.
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Manages to destroy Tessaiga's blade by biting it. Later, his fangs are used by Kaijinbo to forge Sesshomaru's blade Tokijin.
- Oh, Crap!: When he realizes that Demon!Inuyasha's only thought is joy for the incoming massacre.
- Our Demons Are Different: Like the other incarnations, he's an incarnation of Naraku. Unlike them, it's implied that his appearance is based on one of the demons Naraku discarded to recreate him.
- Psycho for Hire: He may be working under Naraku's orders, but there's no doubt that he loves killing and causing pain for its own sake.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The only incarnation to have completely red eyes, and he is a monster to the core.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's only around for one episode, but he breaks Tessaiga, which brings forth Inuyasha's demon powers, which leads him to abandon his goal to use the Shikon no Tama to become a full demon. His fangs are also used by Sesshomaru to forge Tokijin, which he uses for the remainder of the first anime.
- Smug Snake: His physical abilities and mind-reading powers give him quite a big ego, as he dismisses Kanna and Kagura while considering himself the ultimate offspring of Naraku. He even dismiss Tessaiga as the "fang of a dog".
- Superpower Lottery: His ability to read minds is one of the most dangerous in the series. By reading his enemies' minds he can predict their actions and this alone made him one of the most dangerous incarnations. It makes one wonder why Naraku didn´t grant this ability to any of his future minions.
- Telepathy: And he loves to use his powers to sadistically torture his victims and opponents.
- Tiny-Headed Behemoth: He towers over the main cast, has a massive muscled torso but his head is disproportionately small, composed mostly of a fanged mouth and huge horns.
- Top-Heavy Guy: His torso is very large compared to the rest of his body.
- Villainous Breakdown: More emphasized in the anime, but after realizing that the only thing Demon!Inuyasha can think of is killing him gruesomely, he furiously rushes forward, screaming in rage at how the other is nothing but an half demon.
- Villainous Glutton: One who's favorite food happens to be people, but horses and cattle will do as well. Even lampshaded by Kagura during his introduction.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: While his purpose may have been just to destroy Tessaiga, it is very clear that before his immediate destruction, that he would've proven to be a powerful servant and enemy even more dangerous than both Kanna and Kagura due to the fact that he has no moral restraints.
- The Worf Effect: An unusual example, since he only appears in one episode and there's nothing to hype him up prior to his debut. However, during the single battle against the heroes, he's displayed his enormous strength, incredible speed and mind reading powers to great effect. This makes him a great measuring stick for Inuyasha's full demon form, whose superior power and speed and dangerous mindset make Inuyasha an even more threatening menace in case if he would turn against his friends and humanity. The power of Goshinki's teeth that can break even Tessaiga also serve later as a tool in form of Sesshomaru's Tokijin, a sword that rivals Tessaiga in power.
Juromaru and Kageromaru
Juromaru and Kageromaru
Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki (JP), Brian Drummond (EN), Humberto Solórzano (LA SP), Giuliano Bonetto (IT)
- Blade Run: Juromaru stands on Tessaiga several times.
- Brains and Brawn: An evil example, Juromaru is the Brawns, and provides a hideout to Kageromaru as well as overpowering his enemies through sheer brute force and offensive, while Kageromaru can talk, does all the planning and is a fragile speedster who uses speed to attack.
- The Brute: Juromaru, in spite of his Bishōnen looks is incredibly strong, agile and brutal, tearing his opponents apart with claws and fangs.
- Dissonant Serenity: Juromaru is costantly apathic to everything around him, never changing his expression or reacting to anything at all, not even when he's mauling Inu Yasha. Kageromaru by contrast is much more expressive.
- Dual Boss: Essentially what they are to Inu Yasha. As seen when Koga helps out, they're not much effective one on one.
- Flat Character: The only reason of their existence is to offer some challenge to Inu Yasha, similar to Goshinki, but at least he had more sentience and personality than both of the duo.
- Fragile Speedster: Kageromaru is absurdly fast, but lacks stamina.
- I Am a Humanitarian: Kageromaru's first words are him commenting how tasty Inuyasha's liver is after he took a bite of him, and pretty much states that they're going to kill the group and devour them.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: Kageromaru. Strikes very fast and immediately hides underground or in his brother stomach.
- Meaningful Name: Juromaru roughly means "Beast Boy", Kageromaru "Shadow Boy".
- No Body Left Behind: They're both turned into dust by the Wind Scar.
- The Speechless: Juromaru. His intelligence is little more than a violent beast and he has no real capacity for speech. He's even introduced with a mask to drive that in and exudes toxic breath.
- Sinister Scythe: Kageromaru's arms.
- The Starscream: The first thing that Juromaru does after being freed by the chains and mask is to behead Naraku's Kugustu. Heck, even when they were still a lump of lifeless flesh the first thing they did was to behead Naraku, they kill and devour some soldiers.
- Tunnel King: Kageromaru can move underground to make sudden attacks from below and escape retaliation. He's ultimately forced to move outside when Sango poison the surrounding earth.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies in his first appearance, but unlike Goshinki, he and his "twin" barely get any characterization
- White Hair, Black Heart: Both brothers have long white hair, but Juromaru is an emotionless brute, Kageromaru a devious manipulator and both eat flesh without a second thought.
Muso
Muso
Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka (JP), Brian Dobson (EN), Luis Daniel Ramírez (LA SP), Vittorio Guerrieri (IT)
The sixth incarnation of Naraku, who appears as a faceless man born from a blob of flesh. He is also Naraku's first attempt to purge Onigumo from himself.
- Alas, Poor Villain: While he was a hedonistic psychopath, it's pretty sad to see Muso go out the way he did. It doesn't help that he was desperate to see Kikyo and screamed it out as he was being re-absorbed.
- Ax-Crazy: He's more-or-less nothing but a violent hedonist who kills whoever and whenever he wants. When one considers the fact that he's essentially Onigumo reborn, this reveals what Onigumo was like before he was immolated.
- The Blank: There's a grisly spot where his face should be. That's because Onigumo had his face burned. Muso later adquired the face we see after stealing the features of a young and handsome monk whom he just killed.
- Blood Knight: Really likes killing.
- Body Horror: Including spikes, Rubber Man characteristics and Combat Tentacles.
- Enemy Without: He attacks Naraku for keeping him shut up for 50 years and is reabsorbed for his troubles.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Invoked - as a demon who decided to steal the face of a (presumably fairly saintly) monk out of vanity, he's an almost literal example.
- Face Stealer: In fact the face wears is that of a handsome priest he comes by.
- Fate Worse than Death: Is eventually re-absorbed by Naraku when he finds out that he can't exist without him.
- Although technically his death would eventually come along with Naraku's many episodes later.
- Full-Frontal Assault: His Healing Factor reforms his body from bloodied chunks, but cannot do the same to his clothes, leading to him fighting in the nude.
- Healing Factor: He can regenerate from any attack, that is unless someone destroys his spider mark.
- The Hedonist: Lives for getting what is best in life.
- How Do I Shot Web?: At first he seemingly has no clue about his demonic powers, but he's pleasantly surprised to see them and grows more and more adept as he fights with them.
- Kill and Replace: He does this to the priest whose name and face he steals.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: He remembers nothing about his past, not even his name. That's one reason he calls himself "Muso", the other being it was the name of the monk whose face he stole. He eventually regains his memories of being Onigumo when he comes across the cave where Kikyo cared for him.
- Naked on Arrival: Was naked after being formed.
- Oh, Crap!: In the manga, when he sees that Naraku wasn't Impaled with Extreme Prejudice as hoped, but has just absorbed his stretched arm into his body.
- One-Winged Angel: See Scary Scorpions below.
- Pretty Boy: Invoked, he discarded the faces of an entire gang of brigands he butchered because he considered them too ugly, but eventually settled for that of the rather pretty monk Muso.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He's the one who generated the Big Bad, and judging from his lust for Kikyo and the comments he made to Kaede ("If you were 50 years younger, you would have lived a little longer") implies that rape isn't too low for him.
- Reincarnation: Of Onigumo, after a fashion: he's Onigumo's soul and heart shunted into a body made from Naraku's flesh.
- Scary Scorpions: His battle form looks like one, save for the pincers.
- Spikes of Villainy: Can sprout these as part of his shapeshifting ability.
- Stupid Evil: He's extremely selfish, hedonistic, and just wanders around killing and pillaging without a cause. Even Naraku calls him his most abominable creation.
- Too Dumb to Live: While running from Naraku, he changes his mind, doubles back, and impales him... which gives Naraku the perfect opening to reabsorb him. In the manga he just attacks Naraku instantly... and is caught by surprise when he see his arm being assilimated.
- Yandere: As Onigumo reborn, he retains his psychotic affection towards Kikyo.
The Infant
The Infant
Voiced by: Ai Kobayashi (JP), Chiara Zanni (EN), Héctor Emmanuel Gómez (LA SP), Stefano Mondini (IT)
Another incarnation of Naraku, created in the depths of Mt. Hakurei. After they got split into two, the first half become Hakudoshi, while the other half returns to being an infant with Hakudoshi's heart.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Being Naraku's heart, not to mention just as cunning and power hungry as him, he decided to betray him and take his place as the Big Bad. It ends as you'd expect it would.
- Creepy Child: Looks like an infant, but is the heart of the Big Bad and a manipulative creep.
- Creepy Twins: With Hakudoshi, even more nasty than Kageromaru and Juromaru.
- Enfant Terrible: A nasty one with Mind Rape powers. Just embracing him allows him to see the person's inner darkness.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: When peering into Shinsen's heart, the dying monk managed to split the Infant in half. One of the halves would become Hakudoshi.
- Idiot Ball: Absorbing Naraku into Moryomaru. BEST. IDEA. EVER.
- It's All About Me: Just like Naraku, the Infant's loyalty lies only to himself. He apparently didn't feel any kind of grief for Hakudoshi's death, even though they were once the same being, and was willing to abandon Mōryōmaru in order to escape Naraku.
- Manipulative Bastard: He's scarily skilled with breaking speeches, showing this when he almost drives an emotionally exhausted Kagome to a Face–Heel Turn by repeatedly giving her those.
- Reincarnation: Since he is Naraku's human heart, he is Muso's reborn form, though lacking in the passion department.
- The Sociopath: As expected from Naraku's heart, the Infant is as sociopathic as him. He is a sinister guy that will manipulate others without the slightest remorse, and sometimes will even hurt others just For the Evulz.
- Soul Jar: Naraku's heart, which means that killing him will kill Naraku as well.
- The Starscream: Likely due to being Onigumo's heart, he's still at odds with Naraku.
- Villainous Valor: He knew that the moment he left Mōryōmaru, he would be killed, but he didn´t care as long Naraku died with him. He would rather die at Inuyasha's hands than become part of Naraku again.
Hakudoshi
Hakudoshi
Voiced by: Ai Kobayashi (JP), Chiara Zanni (EN), Héctor Emmanuel Gómez (LA SP), Stefano De Filippis (IT)
- Badass Adorable: Hakudoshi looks like a small child but, is a full on Lightning Bruiser who dances around the heroes' attacks.
- Big Bad Wannabe: After setting himself up as an intimidating enemy to Inuyasha, he tries to betray Naraku and take over.
- Blood Knight: Likes fighting strong demons.
- The Brute: Within his brother the Infant's conspiracy against Naraku Hakudoshi takes this role. While Moryomaru protects their leader Hakudoshi is sent out to do the dirty work, getting into fights and killing as they need. Tellingly, he's also the least intelligent and is the first of them to die, going out as he smugly gloats about his superiority to Naraku while he himself is in danger.
- The Chessmaster: Like father, like son.
- Creepy Child: Just as big of a sociopath as Naraku despite looking like a young boy.
- Deceptive Disciple: To Naraku considering how alike they are, it shouldn't be a surprise.
- The Dragon: Has a stint as Naraku's right-hand man amongst the incarnations, being used as the physical enforcer of his father's will while the latter sticks to the brainwork of plotting. This lasts until later chapters and The Final Act where he attempts to betray Naraku to take power alongside the Infant.
- Enfant Terrible: Technically, he still is an infant; however, he's matured into a young boy. That being said, he's just as evil as his father.
- Evil Gloating: He openly brags to Inuyasha and co. about his plans to double-cross Naraku... which is what leads to his downfall when Naraku abandons him to die.
- Faux Affably Evil: Hakudoshi is generally level-toned and calm when he speaks, usually while smiling but also does so while ordering horrific crimes or basking in how superior he feels to whomever he's speaking to.
- Fluffy Tamer: Command over the monstrous Moryomaru.
- For the Evulz: He'll go the extra mile to cause innocent humans and demons pain, a prominent example being his setting a colony of rat demons upon several villages simply to lure Kikyo out of hiding.
- Healing Factor: He's inherited the rapid healing factor if he's ever cut down. That is until Naraku takes it away.
- Lack of Empathy: This is first shown when he cuts off the head of a demon just walking by and later kills an otter demon's father in front of the child's eyes. The latter got resurrected by Sesshomaru after wandering a bit. This exchange sums it up quite well:Inuyasha: Do you know how many villages were destroyed just so you could lure Kikyō out?!
Hakudoshi: Oh, please. Is that what you're so upset about? - Lightning Bruiser: Incredibly fast and powerful to the point he jumps to the point of a blade without anyone seeing it.
- Like Father, Like Son: Naraku made many incarnations as servants, but Hakudoshi is much more of a son than any of the other creatures that emerged from his body, because Hakudoshi and Naraku share the same core. Naturally loyalty isn't a trait he inherited, since Naraku doesn't possess it either.
- Mad Scientist: Taking after his father with experimentation, Hakudoshi creates Moryomaru to protect the Infant by killing so many demons there's a trail of bodies left behind him to create the monstrosity.
- Manipulative Bastard: He's perfectly capable of using Inuyasha, as well as Kagura, to test traps for him, not caring whether or not they'll die in the process or solve a problem for him; though having both isn't too bad for him either.
- Mind over Matter: Displays this when telekinetically controlling pebbles to hit Kagura.
- Off with His Head!: One of the first things he does is to harvest the heads of several powerful demons in order to find out where's the Shikon fragment.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Thought himself as being Naraku's successor, but when he dies, he has the undignified honor of Naraku outright leaving him to die because he boasted too highly, instead of being used to stall his enemies or being killed by Naraku himself like the rest of his brethren.
- Smug Super: Unlike The Infant, he has incredible power to back up his claims.
- The Starscream: To Naraku, but he'll troll the other detachments as necessary to achieve it (especially Kagura). And since one of his last words was "I am the real one", it is quite possible he would eventually betray the Infant.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Hakudoshi has a fast and strong fighting style. But, Inuyasha notices from the cuts of Hakudoshi's victims that he's a terrible swordsman. Due largely from inexperience.
- Villain Ball: His gloating about betraying Naraku is what gets him abandoned by the latter to be sucked into the Wind Tunnel. Maybe being subtle about your treachery like Kagura would've been a good idea.
- Villainous Friendship: Subverted with the Infant, both of whom view each other as an extension of themselves. While the two share a psychic link and aim to overthrow Naraku together with Moryomaru, never do they show any kindness to each other, instead behaving like two rebellious psychopaths who happen to share a common goal.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Hakudoshi's monstrous deeds and smug personality are contrasted by his white hair and outfit.
Byakuya
Byakuya
Voiced by: Mitsuaki Madono (JP), Michael Adamthwaite (EN), Gerardo Ortega (LA SP), Andrea Lavagnino (IT)
Naraku's final incarnation, he appears to be a beautiful young man with a playful disposition. He is purely loyal to Naraku and has a wide variety of powers.
- Affably Evil: Playful, loyal and polite, he's easily the most affable of Naraku's incarnations.
- Agent Peacock: Byakuya wears makeup, is feminine and yet is probably Naraku's most competent subordinate.
- Battle Butler: And loyal to Naraku to the death as well.
- The Dragon: After Kagura's death, he becomes Naraku's top servant, though by that time there were almost none.
- Deadpan Snarker: Like Kagura, he likes to make snide comments, but unlike her, he's genuinely more laid back about it.
- Eye Scream: He can detach his eye to spy on others. Naraku can see through them by poking a tendril in Byakuya's empty eye socket, much to Byakuya's disgust.
- Fantastically Indifferent: Like Kanna, his main purpose is to perform a specific duty for Naraku that will result in his death. Unlike Kanna, he remains loyal to the end and barely bats an eyelid over having to sacrifice himself.
- Foil: Surprisingly, to his "siblings". None of his siblings have any true loyalty to Naraku and had intentions of betraying him at some point. Bayakuya, however, was truly loyal to Naraku, even accepting his death as per Naraku's orders when most others would try to avoid death.
- Foreshadowing: As he watches the manner in which Kanna dies, he contemplates that's his likely fate as well. He was right.
- Guyliner: He wears lipstick.
- Just Following Orders: He tries to interfere with Sesshoumaru's pursuit of Mouryoumaru. When Sesshoumaru turns on him, he asks Sesshoumaru not to hate him because he's just doing his job, and then beats a hasty retreat.
- Master of Illusion: He can summon nearly-perfect illusions.
- Mega Manning: The true purpose of his sword.
- Ornamental Weapon: Subverted. It's seemingly purely decorative, but turns out to have quite specific abilities.
- Paper Master: He uses origami birds for transport.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Unlike most of Naraku's detactments, he's not really malicious. Heck, he even has some sympathy for Kanna after she dies and never really gloats or mocks his opponents. That said, he doesn't have any desire to betray Naraku and will follow his orders without question. Even when it leads to his death.
- Servile Snarker: Loyal to Naraku he may be, but that doesn't stop him from having a bit of fun at his master's expense. His assessment of their attempt to get Kohaku's shard only for Naraku to wind up in several pieces that he's struggling to reform together: "That didn't exactly go as planned, did it?"
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He comes in after Kagura's death, plays the same role, does the same things, and even looks and behaves similar. All except having that pesky personal desire of hers to be independent.
- Teleporters and Transporters: One of his powers
- Undying Loyalty: The only one of Naraku's detachments shown to be completely loyal to him, and also the only being in the entire series who doesn't completely despise Naraku or try to kill him.
- To be fair though it is shown that if Naraku dies, he dies with him. Between that and the fact that Naraku never ended up using him in an awful way the way the other incarnations were, it may be less undying loyalty to Naraku, and more that Naraku never did anything to him personally.
