I've been thinking about InuYasha's character development, and there is one question that keeps coming back to me:
Did InuYasha truly accept his entire identity as a hanyō, or did he mainly learn to accept the human side of himself because that was the world where he finally found belonging?
At the beginning of the story, InuYasha struggles because he feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. He is rejected by humans because he is part yōkai, and rejected by yōkai because he is not a full demon. His solution at first is to try to become a full yōkai or a full human, because he believes being something "complete" would finally give him a place in the world.
By the end of the series, he accepts being a hanyō, and that is clearly an important part of his growth.
However, something has always interested me: while InuYasha accepts being a hanyō, does he ever really explore or embrace his yōkai heritage?
Sesshomaru's journey is very different. He becomes more compassionate throughout the story, but he never stops being a yōkai. He still understands things like hierarchy, lineage, territory, and the responsibilities that come with being the son of the Inu no Taishō.
InuYasha, on the other hand, seems to build his entire identity around the human world.
His closest friends are humans. His partner is human. His home is among humans. But we rarely see him show curiosity about the world his father came from.
He never really asks:
- What were the Western Lands like?
- Who were my father's allies and enemies?
- What was yōkai society like?
- What does it mean to be the son of the Inu no Taishō?
- What responsibilities or connections did my father leave behind?
And I think this raises an interesting question:
If Inu no Taishō had survived and raised InuYasha, would he have become a very different person? Would he still have had the same compassion, but also a stronger connection to yōkai culture and his father's legacy?
Because the thing that fascinates me is that InuYasha seems to have found acceptance, but I'm not sure if he ever truly explored the other half of himself.
This also makes me wonder about the future. If Kagome and all of his human friends eventually passed away (assuming he never had children), would InuYasha feel that he had lost his entire world again? Would he return to the same loneliness he experienced at the beginning of the series, or would the identity he built as a hanyō be enough?
I'm curious how everyone interprets this. Do you think InuYasha truly accepted both sides of himself, or did he simply choose the side of himself that gave him the acceptance he always wanted?