Naraku
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Naraku (奈落, ならく, "underworld") is the major villain in the manga and anime series InuYasha, although not always a major focus in every episode. Extremely effective, he has had a remarkable (some say excessive) staying power through the course of the series, which has occasionally drawn criticism from fans.
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Origin of Naraku
Onigumo
Naraku is a han'yō ("half-demon" — yō is derived from yōkai, which means "demon"), although he differs from most han'yō.
There was a man named Onigumo (鬼蜘蛛, おにぐも, "demon-spider"), who was full of deceit and hatred for others. In the anime, but not in the manga he tricked his bandit leader, Rasetsu into approaching Kikyō and attempt to obtain the Shikon no Tama, or Jewel of Four Souls; however, Onigumo did not warn him that with Kikyō, there was a han'yō named InuYasha. Rasetsu survived the encounter with InuYasha, lost an eye, and returns to camp annoyed to find that Onigumo has made off with his troops. Reasetsu finds Onigumo and his troops at an inn down the road celebrating their change in leadership. Rasetsu blows up the inn, but the charred body of Onigumo somehow manages to survive the blast. Rasetsu throws the barely-living Onigumo off a cliff. (This, however, does not explain the spider scar, as Onigumo had the scar before he met Rasetsu).
By either chance or fate, Onigumo barely survived and was found by Kikyō who slowly nursed him back to the point of being able to speak. Onigumo secretly lusted after Kikyō, but knowing that he could not move for the rest of his life, he summoned countless male yōkai using his corrupted soul. He then had them devour his body in exchange for giving him a new body with which he could claim Kikyō and the Shikon no Tama. Thus the countless yōkai were bound together in a form with Onigumo serving as a connector. This resulted in the part-human, part-yōkai Naraku.
Naraku, an evolution of Onigumo
In the meantime, he did not forget about his ultimate goal of obtaining the corrupted Shikon no Tama. He disguised himself as both InuYasha and Kikyō and tricked them into hating each other, as he describes that "the Shikon Jewel is the most beautiful when it's tainted by the hatred Kikyō and InuYasha have toward each other".
He mortally wounded Kikyō while disguised as InuYasha, took the Shikon no Tama and returned it to the village, then disguised himself as Kikyō and attacked InuYasha. InuYasha, sensing something was wrong, instinctively went back to the village to retrieve the Jewel. However, disguised as Kikyō, Naraku told the villagers that InuYasha would come for the Shikon no Tama at any cost, thereby forcing InuYasha to use force to obtain the Jewel. As he was getting away with the Jewel, Kikyō, with her remaining strength, sealed InuYasha to the Time Tree. Naraku, who desired both the Shikon no Tama and Kikyō thought that she would use the Jewel to heal herself but instead she requested Kaede to cremate the Jewel along with her dying body, so that it would be taken to the afterlife with her.
For 50 years after Kikyō's death, Naraku secretly plotted and waited for the Shikon no Tama to appear again. After the appearance of Kagome as the present-day reincarnation of Kikyō and InuYasha's awakening, he moved forward with his plan of gathering the shattered shards of the Jewel. Knowing his weakness as a han'yō, he relied mostly on dirty tricks and traps while gathering information on his potential enemies that would stand before his insidious plot.
Being a han'yō like InuYasha, Naraku also experiences a recurring period of weakness once a month. During those times, he loses all his yōkai powers and reverts to his human "form". While in this form, he is composed of his head attached to countless random yōkai parts. Naraku has the freedom of choosing this time, and since he is made up of thousands of yōkai, each time he "experiments" and "reconstructs" his body, he gets rid of weak and useless parts while keeping the vital ones to get stronger. It is possible that during each of these periods he expelled more and more of his humanity. This process ultimately lead to the creation of his stronger form.
Naraku: his second form
Becoming a full yōkai
After InuYasha was able to defeat his barrier with the red Tessaiga, Naraku retreated to Hakurei-Zan for a long time, resurrecting the Shichi'nintai in the meantime to keep his enemies busy. To better protect himself from powerful yōkai enemies like InuYasha, Sesshōmaru, and Kōga, he deceived a living Buddha into creating a barrier so holy, that it would purify and cleanse any yōkai that came close to it, depending on the power of yōkai. The closer Naraku's enemies came to the core of the barrier, the stronger it was. This was also the most powerful barrier in the series as its reach extended over the parameter of an entire mountain and much of the land around it. Sesshōmaru however was only weakened by the barrier and was able to enter the mountain during his battles with Suikotsu and Jakotsu.
Naraku separates himself from his heart, rendering it in two pieces. The physical heart (心臓, しんぞう, shinzō) he imparts to Akago, rendering Naraku effectively immortal unless Akago is destroyed. The spiritual heart, or soul (kokoro), which he inherited from the human Onigumo, is discarded inside Hakurei-Zan. This allows Naraku to become stronger, much like a full yōkai. Furthermore, he now possessed an even stronger barrier, which proved impenetrable to anything except for the Tessaiga's Kongōsōha ("diamond shard blast").
As soon as Kikyō gives the man who created the barrier the ability to find peace, he departs for the afterlife, the barrier disolves. Naraku then reveals his new, powerful form and strikes down Kikyō. His powers increased dramatically as he challenged Sesshōmaru and proclaimed that "I cannot die". In order to find the final Shikon shard located at the border between this world and the afterlife, Naraku made a deal with Abi-Hime, the princess of the bird yōkai. However, Abi-Hime and her Mother, Tekkei, never did trust Naraku because he was "merely" a han'yō. Both being full yōkai with utter contempt for han'yō, Abi-Hime and Tekkei plotted against Naraku and later attacked him. Naraku proceded to behead Tekkei, the river of her blood producing a gateway to the world between this and the next.
Throughout the series Naraku is always constantly absorbing yōkai. Even though he is now completely as powerful as a full yōkai, he still able to carry on the process of expelling the weak components of his victims and retaining the stronger ones. Thus he is able to constantly increase his strength.
The re-absorption of Naraku's heart
Following the death of Kagura in the manga, Naraku becomes largely absent from the series, and the focus shifts to Akago's and Mōryōmaru's quest to absorb yōkai and Shikon shards. Naraku finally reappears, reviving a tree yōkai known as Yōmeiju, a tree which devoured humans and yōkai alike. But this time, as InuYasha and his group watched, as Naraku devoured the tree. Shortly thereafter, he and Mōryōmaru squared off for the first time in an open battle. Naraku then reveals that the reason he created Akago as an infant and purposely made him so weak, while providing him with a powerful barrier that he had the power to disable, was because he always knew his heart would turn against him. Taunting Mōryōmaru about his shell, referring to it as a castle and to Akago as a king who has grown fat in said castle, Naraku at first appeared to be trying to reabsorb him. But this clash ended with a shocking twist; Mōryōmaru absorbed his maker, supposedly defeating him for good. Naraku soon revealed that he was in fact alive, having allowed Mōryōmaru to absorb him in a Trojan Horse-style ploy in order to then devour Mōryōmaru from the inside. He then used the Yōmeiju's barrier-dissolving abilities to reclaim Akago and then fully assimilated Mōryōmaru into his being.
In Chapter 452 of the manga, "Spider Web", Naraku also returned to Hakurei-Zan to reabsorb the heart of Onigumo which he discarded there. It is noted that the human heart possesses more intense negative feelings than Naraku's yokai heart. This is to avoid being purified by Kikyō, presumably because of the Onigumo's intense negative feelings. Naraku intends to exploit the psionic connection between the hearts of Onigumo, Kikyō and Inuyasha to destroy both Kikyō and Inuyasha. This may mean that Naraku has lost his ability to regenerate his body once injured.
Potential for unlimited growth
One of Naraku trademarks is that he is constantly absorbing other yōkai into his body and then getting rid of the weak components. Thus his power only keeps on growing. It is assumed then that each time one of Naraku's opponents face him, they are fighting stronger version of him than the last.
Attacks and abilities
Naraku has countless abilities and obviously all of them aren’t revealed as he isn’t the prime focus of the series. But those that he has revealed so far are:
- Saimyōshō — Naraku's minion wasps from hell. They are useful for stopping Miroku's Kazāna ("wind void", Wind Tunnel in the English dub), for spying on his enemies, and gathering Jewel shards.
- Mimicry — He can shape shift into any other form he chooses (usually a humanoid). He will have a different voice as well.
- Absorption — Absorbs a fallen foe and adds his powers into his body.
- Miasma — Poisonous gas which kills anything that touches it. His body is filled with it which is why when a foe bites him or even touches him he / she gets poisoned.
- Miasma tornado — A poisonous tornado with the same properties as miasma. He uses the tornado as a get away, entrance, and can fly in it.
- Cloud of destruction — A cloud of miasma, projected in a spherical form from his body, which destroys and poisons many things over long distances. This was the first attack ever revealed by Naraku, but he realized how useless it was against InuYasha who was able to cut it via the Tessaiga.
- Yōkai puppets ("demon puppets" in the English dub) — Puppets which resemble him. He controls them from afar and can see through their eyes. They are mostly maid of mud and soil, and are able to spring roots in order to attack opponents.
- Yōkai parts — Naraku can bring out pieces of the countless yōkai he has absorbed out to use when he fights an opponent; such as tentacles, webs, and other such things. More recently he acquired the Yōmeiju's tentacles that allows him to penetrate barriers and devour yōkai more easily.
- Disappearing act — Reappears and disappears at will.
- Detachments — Makes incarnations out of his own body to do his dirty work for him. Most have a spider mark on their back which is a result of being born of Naraku when he still was a han'yō with Onigumo inside him. After he purged himself of his human presence in the countless lumps of flesh inside Hakurei-Zan, he and all his future children were free of having that scar on them.
- Illusionary death — An illusory spell cast upon foes which makes their worst fear come to life. Only works on people with darkness in their hearts.
- Telekinesis — He has also shown some mild ability to levitate objects such as Sango's Hiraikotsu and fragments of the Shikon no Tama but never in a form where he can use this ability to attack his opponents.
- Barrier — A barrier which prevents the foe from finding and / or attacking him. At first his barrier was only useful in hiding his presence. Then later on it became powerful enough to survive the Kaze no Kizu, which is why InuYasha needed to obtain blood from the bat yōkai, Taigokumeru, in order to penetrate. After Naraku became a full yōkai the barrier became so powerful that nothing but the Kongōsōha was able to pierce it.
- Flight — He has the ability to fly with or without his barrier and only seems to do so after achieving his full yōkai form.
- Yōki control — Whenever someone sends an attack of yōki (yōkai energy) into Naraku’s barrier he can channel the flow of the attack into his own jaki (yōki aura) and then attack his opponents with it. However, this can only be done with attacks that cannot penetrate his barrier, which means it’s useless against InuYasha's Kongōsōha.
- Regeneration — Naraku can heal his own wounds and also put back together severed pieces of his body. He can control 100% of his body all the time (even when severed). It comes in handy when he is trying to absorb someone. However there is a limit to how much he can regenerate. The more damage he takes the more time he will need later on to regenerate. Too much damage can kill him which is why in the beginning of the series he had to flee from his enemies. Usually he will absorb yōkai to speed up his regeneration process. However, after he removes his heart, which comes out as Akago, he was able to regenerate no matter how much damage his body took since his life force or his heart wasn't in his body.
- Beam attack — Naraku sends out one or more of the horns on his elbows in a zigzag beam attack or extends his fingers into tentacles with a glowing attack at the tip of fingers to attack his foe(s). In the manga this attack was of a silverfish color and in the anime it is of a purple color. Furthermore, even though this attack is a yōki attack, because Naraku is using his body parts infused with shōki to attack his opponents, InuYasha cannot use his Bakuryūha (Backlash Wave) against it since it counts as a physical attack.
- Shōki — This is Naraku's trademark. It is what makes his poisonous gas. Later on his shōki is able to take on a liquid form and acts like a river of acid. His shōki is so strong that it allows him to break away pieces of the nearly completed Shikon no Tama to use in his schemes. Overtime his shōki has become so dangerous that after he infects Kikyō with it, neither Kagome nor Kikyō's holy powers seem to be able to purify it. Kikyō absorbs Midoriko's soul in order to protect herself but she comments that she doesn't know how long Midoriko's power can last against Naraku's venom, seeing as how she and Midoriko remain at the same strength while Naraku continues to increase in power.
- Psionic Spider Web — This ability is gained from the reabsorption of Naraku's Human Heart. Naraku extends the threads of this illusionary web from the sky and then to its victims. The threads of the web cannot be purified for it feeds upon the dark desires of the victims, namely Kikyo and Inuyasha. The effects of web causes the victims to relive their unhappy past events and widens shōki wounds.
Naraku's appearance
Because of his nature, Naraku's true form is somewhat a mystery. He is usually seen hidden inside his white baboon pelt, which hides all but his mouth and eyes. He is later seen with a human form usually in a dark blue kimono and a small purple jacket that matches the color of his shōki, but this may not be Naraku's true form, but rather the form of a human daimyō that Naraku possibly has killed or created, which he uses as his form all the time. Humans familiar with the daimyō could not distinguish between them.
In the second movie, Naraku is briefly seen in the opening credits as a large spider yōkai, which has been called his true form. This could indeed be possible, as his origins as Onigumo (which translates to "demon-spider"), as well as the spider scar on his back, and the fact that when Miroku have led many to believe Naraku to be a spider yōkai / han'yō. However, this may well have been a part of his ruse in that film, as he later revived in his previous humanoid form. In episodes 80-81 he creates a form of the top half of his body surrounded in gigantic green tentacles and centipede bodies, along with dozens of smaller gray tentacles and 4 spiky red claws growing out of his back. Since at this time Naraku had still not perfected his body as it still had components of Onigumo in it, he told Sesshōmaru that this was his body in its intermediate stage of reaching its full yōkai transformation.
Also, Naraku is seen in the final episodes of the anime in the same "human form." However, this form was composed only of yōkai as he had disposed of Onigumo from his body and become a full yōkai. This form has an armor of blades rising over the shoulders, and also features blades along the chest and wrists, with horns on the top of his back. He also wears the same dark blue kimono, now with a huge light blue jacket with a high collar, and a yellow belt. He now also has a monstrous eye in the center of his chest, two red eyes on each of his hands, and three tails that seem to belong to a dragon. In the manga the tails were purple and around three to four times the size on Naraku, but in the anime they are green and much shorter. In this form he usually extends his fingers and makes them attack as in the form of glowing purple tentacles or extends the bones of his wrist in a zigzag purple beam like motion and infects people with his shōki.
Many fans believe that Naraku's true form is a human form identical to Onigumo or Hitomi Kagewaki (the young daimyō). However, this judgment is not all that helpful in discovering Naraku's true form, as even less is known about Onigumo than Naraku. Onigumo, whenever seen, has his face in shadows or is bandaged around his face. But Onigumo's hair is seen, and Kagewaki's face when Naraku is having periods of weaknesses (like InuYasha's) — which is remarkably similar to his current appearance (described above). Also, in "Spider Web"(Manga Chapter 452), when Naraku went back to Hakurei-Zan in order to reabsorb Onigumo's heart, it turns out that Onigumo's heart, (which appears in the form of a human head) looks identical to Naraku's favorite face.
Some hold that Naraku has no true form. Since he has shown the ability to change shape for his entire existence as Naraku, the argument goes, and since he distinguishes himself sharply from Onigumo, it seems unclear what the phrase "true form" means in this case. He never had a childhood form. He does assume a special shape when he loses his powers, but this composite form presumably changes with time as he absorbs and expels yōkai to strengthen himself. And as a full yōkai, he would no longer need to assume that shape. Before obtaining his full yōkai form, Naraku hated his one known consistent physical trait — the spider-shaped scar that revealed his part-human origin — and worked to remove the human heart associated with it. (When Musō left Naraku's body, the scar on Musō's back showed the location of his heart.) In one episode of the anime, Naraku cuts the scar from his back with a sword. (It grows back.)
Naraku's detachments
To get rid of unnecessary parts as well as keeping a better eye on his surrounding situations, Naraku was constantly releasing detachments of himself to carry out his bidding, however only a few of the detachments truly live up to their purposes as most betrayed him or were quickly disposed of by the people going after him:
- Kan'na (神無) — She is a yōkai of mu, "void". Old word meaning "godless world". Although she appears younger than Kagura, she is in fact Naraku's first detachment, and remains utterly loyal to him while knowing that they are just used as tools in his schemes.
- Kagura (神楽) — She is a wind sorceress (Japanese: "Wind user", also refers to the sacred dances of miko) and appears first in the anime and manga, though she is his second detachment. Because she doesn't like taking orders from anyone, she wanted freedom from Naraku's control but is eventually tricked and poisoned to her death.
- Goshinki (悟心鬼) — The third detachment of Naraku, Goshinki was a large horned ogre with the ability to read minds. He was extremely agile, very powerful, and had teeth so strong they ultimately broke the Tessaiga, which ended up being his own undoing. Once defeated Sesshōmaru contracted Kaijinbo to create Tōkijin from the fangs of Goshinki's head once the head was resurrected.
- Juromaru (獣郎丸, Jūrōmaru) — He was a feral detachment and brother of Kagerōmaru, who lived in his stomach.
- Kageromaru (影郎丸, Kagerōmaru) — He was a small, fast and intelligent detachment from Naraku. Lived inside Jūrōmaru. Not particularly loyal to Naraku.
- [unnamed] — It's only appearance (and death) was in Chapter 174 of the manga, "The Barrier of Earth". It had a serpentine lower body and a (seemingly male) humanoid torso, with white hair, blank eyes, and tendrils surrounding its mouth. It was killed immediately after its emergence by Kikyō.
- Muso (無双, Musō) — He was born as "the man with no face", a reincarnated Onigumo. He was reabsorbed after a while of independence.
- Unnamed - while in Mount Hakurei, Naraku discarded his human heart, the heart of Onigumo, in the form of blobs of flesh, as well as expelling his new heart in a new body. The pieces would later merge into a human head, and then change into a spider, which was reabsorbed by Naraku in Chapter 452.
- Akago (赤子) — He is a child that has the ability to corrupt the hearts of people into doing his bidding. He was cut in half by a priest, which led to the creation of Hakudōshi. He later is placed inside the haku (life force) puppet, Mōryōmaru. NOTE: The status of Akago as this character's actual name is contested, since akago is standard modern Japanese for baby (whereas all the other characters' names have obscure and / or archaic meanings). In the official English translation, he is called "the infant". In Chapter 446, Mouryoumaru is taken over by Naraku. In Chapter 448, Naraku disappears with Akago, and by his next appearance in Chapter 452, has reabsorbed him.
- Hakudoshi (Hakudōshi) — He is a detachment from Akago. Taking the form of a young child, he was able to tame the yōba (horse-yōkai) Entei. He continues Akago's quest to get the last Shikon shard. After Naraku is nearly destroyed at the boundary of the afterlife, Hakudōshi is charged with flushing out Kikyō. He eventually is found out as a traitor to Naraku and is sucked in by Miroku's Kazāna.
- Byakuya — Naraku's latest detachment that appears in Chapter 397. He told the Dokumizuchi who had eaten Mōryōmaru's flesh the location of InuYasha. He was created to replace Kagura, serving the purpose of tracking down Mōryōmaru while keeping tabs on the full-extent of InuYasha's Tessaiga. Byakuya uses origami as his primary weapon and seem to be able to create illusions, but not much else is known about him yet.
Naraku's enemies
- InuYasha — Naraku made a scheme to rob Shikon no Tama. Naraku's scheme was not successful, but because of it InuYasha was sealed by Kikyō's Fūin no Ya (spiritual sealing arrow), and Kikyō died of wounds inflicted by Naraku.
- Kagome — All of her friends have been betrayed by Naraku and he has attempted to kill her because of her interference.
- Miroku — When Miroku's grandfather, a hōshi (法師, ほうし, Buddhist monk), fought against Naraku, Naraku cursed him by placing a Kazāna (風穴, かざあな, "wind void") on the hōshi's hand. The Kazāna curse was passed down to Miroku, who watched his father being consumed by it. If Naraku is not defeated, Kazāna will cause Miroku to be sucked in as Miroku's grandfather and father. Being the one who caused the curse, Naraku also has a way to prevent Miroku from using it against him; namely, the Saimyōshō.
- Sango — Her entire family was slain in Naraku's trap. Naraku framed InuYasha, but Sango eventually learned who the real culprit was. Her brother, Kohaku, is later resurrected with a shard of the Shikon no Tama, and used as a slave to Naraku.
- Sesshōmaru — Detests Naraku ever since he burned the fake arm of Sesshōmaru’s in order to get his Jewel shard back. He also kidnapped Rin, the orphan girl under his protection.
- Kikyō — She is secretly plotting Naraku's downfall, however, Naraku always seems to be one step ahead of her.
- Kōga — His Yōrō-Zoku (wolf-yōkai tribe) was decimated by Naraku's plot via Kagura. Naraku again framed InuYasha, but Kōga eventually learned who the real culprit was.
- Kagura — His second detachment whom despises the control Naraku exerts over her, but must obey because her heart and therefore her life is in his hand. Naraku later returns her heart, but poisons her with shōki, which ultimately takes her life.
- Kuturugi — In the video game InuYasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask is a young male or female sent from modern times to the feudal era. Possessing powerful shikigami, he or she aides InuYasha and friends in defeating Naraku.
- Musō — The heart of Onigumo, sought to be free of the evil Naraku who wanted to kill his beloved Kikyō, but was later consumed by Naraku.
- Kohaku — eventually regains his memory and begins to think about how to kill Naraku for what he has done.
- Akago and Hakudōshi — Since Akago is really Naraku's heart, they seek to free themselves from Naraku's control and become independent. Hakudōshi is loyal to Akago and created Mōryōmaru as a body to protect Akago. Hakudōshi is found out and Naraku lets Miroku suck him in with Kazāna.
- Bankotsu — He sooner or later was going to turn against Naraku. InuYasha would have gladly teamed up with Bankotsu in order to defeat Naraku, however, Bankotsu wanted to go it alone once he defeats InuYasha.
Voice actors
- Japanese seiyū: Hiroshi Yanaka, then Toshiyuki Morikawa
- English voice actor: Paul Dobson
- Brazilian voice actor: Armando Tirabosque
Trivia
- Naraku seems to be entirely immune to feeling pain, sickness or losing consciousness. However, he has shown signs of feeling slight pain and/or weakness in the Anime, only.
- Other than Kagome, Naraku is known for changing his look (mainly clothes) more than anyone else in the series.
- According to the InuYasha Manga, Naraku tends to appear less in certain Anime episodes than he actually does in the Manga. Many of the scenes that he is featured in are usually shortened or cut out completely.
- According to the Zusetsutaizen Ougikaiden official character data book, both Naraku's love/compassion and family/friendship are listed as being 5/5 - which is higher than most character's.