"Enjoy what little time you have left to live...of course, it will only be filled with pain and despair."
Inuyasha: Do you know how many villages were destroyed just so you could lure Kikyō out?!
Hakudōshi: Oh, please. Is that what you're so upset about?
Hakudōshi: Oh, please. Is that what you're so upset about?
Across the brutal world of the Sengoku Period, the the title character and his companions have faced many vicious demons. Whether their Arch-Enemy, Naraku himself, one of his incarnations, or other psychopaths, the worst of the worst stand out for monstrosity.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Original Manga & Anime
- Naraku is a manipulative half-demon seeking the Shikon Jewel. Born out of the bandit Onigumo's pact with demons to covet the love of the priestess guarding the Jewel, Kikyo, Naraku instead uses his first moments alive to mortally wound Kikyo and make her think her lover Inuyasha betrayed her. When Kikyo has the Jewel burned with her body rather than wish upon it to extend her life, Naraku, plotting while awaiting its recreation, curses a family of monks to die slowly and horribly with each generation lest they kill him; and later graphically murders a group of children with his poisonous miasma. In present time, Naraku becomes more active as the Jewel returns; orchestrating countless demon attacks to devastate cities and towns across the country; creating incarnations of himself to carry out further massacres; corrupting a young demon slayer into killing his family and manipulating him as a puppet; and resurrecting the Band of Seven, a group of mercenaries who have killed thousands, to murder as they please as a distraction while he experiments and strengthens himself. Horrifically abusive to his incarnation-children, Naraku threatens their lives to ensure their allegiance and cruelly leads them to their deaths as soon as they cease being useful to him, holding the literal heart of one captive to ensure her loyalty. Eventually completing the fractured Jewel, Naraku uses it to attempt to eradicate Kikyo's village and even after being mortally wounded intends to use his miasma-laden corpse to kill all the villagers. A spiteful, sadistic monster, Naraku deals with his own depression and insecurity by devastating the land of Feudal Japan and seeking nothing more than to cause as much misery as possible.
- "The Infant", Naraku's eighth incarnation, is a sociopathic manipulator who contrasts his harmless, defenseless appearance with a truly heinous personality. Immediately after his creation, the Infant takes control of a lady in royalty and begins a mass execution of innocents in an attempt to draw out heroine Kagome Higurashi for the Infant to possess. The Infant goes on to kill a variety of priests and backs Hakudōshi's vile butchering and experiments on demons, before utilizing his fabricated "Moryomaru" armor to slaughter and absorb hundreds of demons for his own power. Unleashing demons upon innocents and empowering bandits to raze entire villages, the Infant goes so far as to nearly murder Koga's young friends in front of him, all to prepare himself to betray Naraku and assume his power as his own. The Infant also shrugs off the death of his other half Hakudōshi, mocks Kagura's murder in front of her friends, and even abandons his living armor Moryomaru with no remorse, assuring all that he would have been a worthy successor to Naraku's villainy.
- Hakudōshi himself, Naraku's incarnation born of a split from the Infant, matches both for cruelty and sadism. Murdering multiple demons to examine their minds for the secrets of the netherworld while allying with Princess Abi to oversee the mass blood-draining of countless villagers, Hakudōshi eventually unleashes swarms of demon rats to devour entire villages to lure out Kikyo and plans to unleash them all over Japan should she not give herself up, bragging that he shall repeat similar schemes and endanger even more lives while showing sadistic glee in the almost unparalleled amounts of bloodshed caused. Later murdering demons for experiments to create Moryomaru for the Infant—callously leaving his failed experiments to run rampant on villages—Hakudōshi also viciously abuses Kagura, forcing her to risk her life in his name and using her as a Human Shield. Hakudōshi even plans to backstab Naraku alongside the Infant, with no loyalty to anyone or anything but himself.
Anime Films
- Affections Touching Across Time: Menomaru is a moth demon and the former second-in-command to his father, the Lord Hyoga, who sought to conquer Japan 200 years in the past until Hyoga was killed and Menomaru sealed by Inuyasha's father. Reawakening, Menomaru tricks Inuyasha into unsealing the dead Hyoga's powers, allowing him to spread his poisonous moths across Japan, killing all they come across for Menomaru to consume their souls. Empowering himself enough to become the new Lord Hyoga, Menomaru, a vicious monster bent on proving his superiority over everything, summons forth his father's army and orders them to kill every living creature on the planet.
- The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass: "Princess Kaguya" is a ruthless demon who devoured many other demons for power, later consuming the real Kaguya and taking her identity and form. After being sealed off by Miroku's grandfather after slaughtering numerous villagers, Kaguya returns after Naraku's supposed death to attempt to turn Inuyasha into a bloodthirsty monster. Enacting a ritual to bring "Eternal Night" and end time for all beings, destroying them, Kaguya intends to reign over the planet as the only living thing left.
- Swords of an Honorable Ruler: So'unga is a sword housing the evil soul of a dragon. Possessing those who wield it to slaughter all about them, So'unga was controlled by Inuyasha and Sessshomaru's father, the Great Dog Demon, until his death. Returning to briefly possess Inuyasha and trying to destroy modern-day Tokyo, So'unga revives the vicious demon-hating warrior Takemaru to slaughter numerous men to steal their souls and revive them as zombies, enhancing Takemaru's negativity and prejudice towards demons against Inuyasha and Sesshomaru for revenge. Even after Takemaru is dead, So'unga is intent on opening the path to the underworld and annihilating all that lives.
Video Games
- The Secret of the Cursed Mask: This version of Naraku maintains his deceitful nature and is the game's true villain. Manipulating the living doll Utsugi, Naraku brings their descendant, the Player Character, to the past, ostensibly to allow Utsugi to become human but really to devour them and empower himself. Framing the protagonist as a criminal to draw them out, Naraku fights them in Castle Town after possessing the Lord and after defeating them, wipes out the city and resurrects the local samurai and even a little girl to serve as his tormented undead soldiers. Also orchestrating Utsugi's attacks on the wolf demon tribe and piling his lair with the carcasses of demons he used and devoured, Naraku eventually consumes the pained Utsugi for their powerful aura.
- Secret of the Divine Jewel (2007): Gorai is a half-demon lord who hopes to harness the power of the god Datara. Staging an attack on Datara's village and wedding to slaughter the populace, Gorai uses Datara's baby as a hostage to force him to don the Demon Mask and put himself under Gorai's control. When Datara's fiancée, Tsugumi, is forced to seal Datara away and kill their infant to protect them from Gorai, Gorai responds by enslaving Tsugumi to his will for centuries. After turning dozens of villagers into soulless husks for slave labor, Gorai orchestrates Datara's reawakening and immediately massacres several villages, planning to ascend to godhood and Take Over the World in bloody conflict.
Live-Action Works
- 2017 stage play: In this retelling of the manga's beginning, Naraku remains the cause of all of the heroes' suffering. Biding his time for the Shikon Jewel's return after causing Kikyo's death and Inuyasha's sealing, Naraku resurfaces with the Jewel's return to use the Spider Head demons to kill Inuyasha and his companions, allowing them to attack the neighboring villages as they please and later mentally tormenting Inuyasha to kill him for his Jewel shards. At the end of the play, Naraku once again attempts to use his illusion magic on Inuyasha and in the final scene sends an army of demons after Inuyasha and his Love Interest, scourging the land in the name of gaining ultimate power.
