An Ode to Kikyo: In Defense of one of Takahashi's Most Hated Characters

If “Density of Fan Hate Per Onscreen Minute” were a quantifiable metric, Fullmetal Alchemist's Shou Tucker would undoubtedly be the record-holder. But Kikyo, from when the InuYasha fandom was at its most active, would still easily crack the top 10, if not the top 5. To phrase that a bit differently: a priestess from a series whose story is literally caused by her mercifully and selflessly treating a sick man, would find herself ranked among the likes of My Hero Academia's Mineta (serial sexual harasser), One Piece's Saint Charlos (rightful recipient of arguably the most satisfying punch to the face in all of anime), and Shou “quite possibly the single most universally hated anime character of all time” Tucker. What the godforsaken word-that-rhymes-with-duck is going on here?

Spoiler Warning for InuYasha.

Kikyo spends a lot of her time watching over children and caring for the sick—it almost feels like she's such a good person that there's no way it's not just an act. And yet, the genuine nature of her kindness is the catalyst that jumpstarts the whole series. It's what motivated her to get to know the outcast InuYasha, it's what prompted her to treat the left-for-dead bandit Onigumo, and it's why Naraku would become so obsessed with tainting her soul with darkness. Oh yeah, and I guess there's also that whole “she protected the Shikon Jewel” thing, which was important.

Despite all this, Kikyo had the dubious honor of being called “the most debated character” by a moderator of a prominent InuYasha fansite (InuYashaWorld.com) in a 2004 thread that linked to the other main Kikyo threads. This further comes despite the fact that, while her story contributions are huge, her on-screen time—especially if you disregard the often-replayed flashbacks of her sealing InuYasha away and her slightly later kiss with InuYasha—would put her firmly in side character territory. 

To understand the question of whether or not all the hate Kikyo got was justified (spoiler alert: it wasn't), we first need to figure out: Why did people hate her so much in the first place? Was it perhaps because she was Kagome's biggest rival in love? And even that poses the follow-up question: did people dislike the InuYasha/Kikyo ship, or did they just dislike Kikyo herself? It's a chicken-or-the-egg type situation: Did people dislike InuYasha/Kikyo because they hated Kikyo first, or did they dislike Kikyo because they hated the idea of InuYasha choosing her over Kagome that much? Or perhaps, was something else going on? She did, after all, antagonize InuYasha a lot upon her return to the world of the living. Different people had different reasons for not liking Kikyo, but broadly speaking, it was a little bit of all of the above. That being said, the sheer power of shipping culture—especially within anime fandom in the 2000s—shouldn't be undermined, and Kikyo's acting as an obstacle between InuYasha and Kagome was probably the most discussed factor at play when it came to anti-Kikyo sentiment, so we'll start there.

Shipping Culture

I'm not going to sit here and disingenuously pretend that there hasn't been a completely and utterly unhinged side of shipping culture in the past ~15 years or so, and that what I'm about to describe is little more than a weird relic of a bygone time. Still, especially compared to today, the shipping culture within the English-language anime fandom of the 2000s had a much wilder and argumentative side. And during its heyday, shippers within the InuYasha fandom were easily among the more zealous anime fandoms.

What this meant for the average bystander was that you wouldn't have to look long or hard to find online scraps over whether InuYasha would end up with Kagome or Kikyo. While they were usually a little more pointed and emoticon-filled than this, the arguments usually sounded close to the following:

• Kikyo is dead! She hates InuYasha and does nothing but harass him and his friends at every chance! She's dead! Kagome is so much less toxic! Did I mention that Kikyo is dead?

• InuYasha loved Kikyo first, and he still loves her! Kagome should stick with men from her own time period! Also, Kagome is only 15!

Interestingly, while not every shipper's end goal is for their couple to be canon, the question of which girl was going to make it across the finish line with InuYasha was a particular point of contention among InuYasha shippers. Moreover, their interest didn't stop there—to be more specific, there was a prevailing sense of, “it's not enough that my girl must win, the other must lose” that just a few years later, would go on to define the climate of the Naruto shipping wars (which I would argue were by far the most intense an anime shipping war ever got, but I'm not about to open that enormous can of worms here and now). In that way, one could say that the InuYasha shipping wars walked so the Naruto shipping wars could Naruto-run. 

In more plain language, it wasn't always enough if you were pro-Kagome—there was a pretty good chance that you'd also end up being anti-Kikyo, and vice-versa. To demonstrate this, one need not look any further than the abundance and size of anti-Kikyo or anti-Kagome groups/threads that still survive in dusty, largely forgotten corners of the internet. That being said, however, this might prompt you to wonder: wait, Kagome had haters, too? And that segways directly into the next point: An Anti-Kikyo guild, which boasts 4,625 members, on Gaia Online.

Misogyny

This point dovetails with shipping culture because much of the misogyny that manifested in the anime fandom during this decade did so by using shipping as an excuse. What do I mean by this? Basically, it became really easy to hate on pretty much any female character you wanted to with the excuse that she was the stupid bitch standing in the way of [insert ship here]'s true love. See prominent examples: Kairi from Kingdom Hearts, Misa from Death Note, Sakura from Naruto, etc. Yes, there is something to be said about the misogyny of the people—usually men—who wrote these women in the first place, but for the love of the Shikon jewel, we have to stay focused, and dissecting that would take this article in a totally different direction.

The point I'm getting at here is that when InuYasha was at the peak of its popularity in the 2000s, nobody would bat an eye if you started hating on a female character in general, and especially so if it was because she was the giant iceberg standing immoveably in the way of your favorite ship. Kagome got her fair share of hate for this same reason, but Kikyo definitely seemed to be more on the receiving end of it. If what Kagome got was a steady stream of hate, maybe even a river on her worst days, then Kikyo got a gushing waterfall. Kikyo-hate was bigger, louder, and prouder. And yes, it was partially because she stood in the way of the much more popular ship of InuYasha and Kagome getting together. Yes, it was also partially because there was a misogynistic streak in a lot of anime fan culture at the time, so open hatred for female characters was often disproportionately strong. And it'd be easy to end this defense for Kikyo here, saying that Kikyo-hate was unfair and that she did nothing legitimately worthy of actual critical examination. But to be fair, not every criticism of Kikyo was quite so flimsy. 

Kikyo's Antagonism

After she's brought back to life, Kikyo spends a great deal of what little fresh onscreen time she has seemingly trying to make life difficult for InuYasha and his allies. But let's not pretend she did this for no reason. Kikyo's whole plan—and it was a solid plan—was to use the completed Shikon jewel to purify Naraku, so she needed Naraku to have a completed jewel. This was, obviously, something that InuYasha and his friends were making rather difficult. Obviously, she was going to impede them when the chance arose. However, her plan ultimately failed because she chose to save Kohaku instead.

What reads as her disdain for our protagonists goes deeper than their being obstacles toward her goal. Consider: Kikyo dedicated her life to protecting others, even though she yearned to be an ordinary woman. And before Naraku came into the picture, she was hoping to achieve exactly that, with her beloved InuYasha by her side. But those plans, alongside her life, were suddenly and violently torn away from her. 

She couldn't even find the peace she craved in death. First of all, she quickly learned that she needed to feed on souls to maintain her existence—and she feels openly conflicted about that. Then, there's the fact that InuYasha—whom she thought she sealed away for good just before her death—is out and about as well.

She would soon be caught up to speed, that it was all a plot by Naraku and that InuYasha hadn't actually betrayed her. First, there was anger at the whole situation (and who wouldn't be mad?). And then, duty, obligation, and in all likelihood, guilt. She was supposed to protect the Shikon jewel. And even though it wasn't her fault, Naraku still attributed his existence to Onigumo's feelings for her—whether it was deserved or not, it's not difficult to imagine she could've felt intense guilt over this. And sure enough, she soon plans to purify Naraku and the Shikon jewel together. But to do that, she has to stick around—she has to continue to feed on souls. However, she must also not let herself get too distracted, lest she risk losing herself in her desire for a more normal life. But just by existing as she does, she can't be normal—but also, she doesn't want to be a monster. In other words, Kikyo “lived” in a constant state of push and pull.

Kikyo exists in an intentionally gray zone between selfish and self-sacrificing, saint and sinner. By design, everything about her feels contradictory. So why should her feelings toward InuYasha be any different? And for that matter, why is it surprising that, especially before learning about the truth about the circumstances leading to her death (but even afterward as well), she'd be hesitant to trust InuYasha or Kagome? Or that she was so jealous of Kagome, who's not only alive, but also has InuYasha, and an ordinary life that she can return to more or less whenever she wants? Or that someone who was brought up as she was—a priestess, a healer, a pure-hearted guardian to the Shikon jewel—would have difficulty expressing and communicating feelings like wrath and envy?

Does Kikyo deserve the hate?

In a word, no. In other words, Kikyo is, by far, the most tragic character in the entirety of InuYasha. She's messy and complicated in ways that feel painfully human and realistic. Her so-called “antagonism” isn't so much heckling InuYasha and Kagome for the sake of it, but more so a combination of trying to fulfill her own plan to defeat Naraku, with a dash of her having difficulty expressing her multitude of feelings. She was always doomed to be misunderstood, and the dual forces of misogyny and a somewhat aggressive shipping culture within the fandom only added fuel (and more than plenty of it) to the fire.

It wasn't well-earned, but the hatred Kikyo got during the series' height of popularity was, unfortunately, very predictable. Sadly, it fits with the rest of her character arc that widespread unpopularity has been Kikyo's legacy, broadly speaking. Even so, for those same reasons, Kikyo still stands out as easily one of the most fascinating and complex characters not just in InuYasha, but in the Takahashi universe—the Rumic World, if you will—overall. Neither quite a foe nor an ally to InuYasha and his friends, what she wanted above all else was to know an ordinary peace, but she was cursed to live—and then un-live—in a world that was hellbent on depriving her of that.

Thanks to Viz Media for their support in bringing the Rumiko Takahashi weekend to life. Please check out their InuYasha manga here!