"I have often heard you humans refer to this as fate or destiny. Only the weak utter such nonsense. It is different for the truly powerful: they create this so-called destiny with their own hands." |
Naraku is the main antagonist/The Heavy of the anime/manga series InuYasha, being responsible for almost every atrocity and misfortune in the series. He is a spider hanyō who was born from the human, Onigumo and various other yōkai. He was directly responsible for the death of Kikyō and the seal placed on Inuyasha. Naraku desired the Shikon Jewel, a jewel that would be able to grant him near-invincibility should he acquire all the pieces of it. He desired the jewel to purge his half-human self from his body, and enhance his strength even further.
He is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in the Japanese version of the anime and Paul Dobson in the English version, the latter of whom also voices Graham Aker.
Personality[]
"You and I may be nothing alike, but we are both half-demons! That means that in both of us there is a human heart and a demon heart, Naraku! But you have betrayed that! We were both given the freedom to choose: to follow our human heart or our demon heart. And you chose to live as a demon, ignoring all that was human in you. You chose to hurt others, and curse them with misery and suffering; but your days of hurting my friends are over, you miserable bastard!" |
Throughout the series, Naraku was consistently portrayed as incredibly cruel, sadistic, and manipulative, taking great delight in destroying the bonds and lives of others, such as when he tricked Inuyasha and Kikyo into thinking they had betrayed each other, causing them to fight. He rarely took responsibility for any of his actions, often twisting details to make it seem like others were to blame, such as when he mocked Inuyasha and Kikyo for not trusting each other enough to see through his deception. While highly intelligent and cunning, he became too much conceited and ostentatious at times, especially when he obtained any new power. His overconfidence got himself cornered many times, such as when Inuyasha's Red Tessaiga broke his barrier for the first time, leaving him entirely shocked. Naraku had a cowardly streak too, and often fled from a battle when his foes had turned the tables on him.
Above all else, Naraku was power-hungry and narcissistic, desiring only power and sheer dominance over others. He bore nothing but contempt and disgust towards all other beings and considered himself superior in every aspect, which can be noted in almost all of the sarcastic remarks he made; especially towards Inuyasha and the humans, despite being a hanyō himself. It became Naraku's sole occupation to cause as much pain and misery to humans and yōkai alike as possible, such as when he placed the Wind Tunnel curse on Miroku's grandfather, which later passed on to his father and Miroku too, or using a shard of the Shikon Jewel to brainwash Sango's brother Kohaku, forcing him to do his bidding.
Naraku also appeared to lack the ability to understand bonds such as love, best displayed when he was unable to understand why, no matter what he forced the brainwashed Kohaku to do, Sango simply refused to kill him. However, Kagome eventually pointed out that he actually could understand them more than he let on, as he couldn't have done all the horrible things he did if he didn't understand what it was like to have a bond with someone. She and Inuyasha both stated that this made him irredeemably evil, since he was well aware of the nature of things he did but just didn't care.
Naraku was naturally, in all aspects, a foil to Inuyasha. Both of them were half-demons that sought to become full demons, but Inuyasha ultimately abandoned that goal when he found being a full demon to his dislike and possible detriment, because losing his human side meant losing his human feelings. In a contrast, Naraku welcomed losing his human feelings, and had always despised them. In the final battle, Inuyasha outright said that this is one of the reasons he hated him so much.
Gallery[]
