#inuyasha meta

She may think Inuyasha is diverting, but he's really not. That's the briliance of this exchange: they are both right and they are both wrong on their assumptions.

Of course that, from Kagome's perspective, Koga putting his arms around her is not that big of a deal. They have no history whatsoever and she made it clear since day one that she wasn't interested. If he still wants to shoot his shot, it's all she can do to lay a friend and ally down gently.

Plus, it doesn't hurt that Koga's interest on her is such an ego boost...

Or that it turns the tables on Inuyasha to make him feel insecure and worried for a change.

Or that, in a twisted way, it actually reassures her of the feelings he tries so hard to be nonchalant about.

It might be a little petty of her, but how any of that even compares to Inuyasha kissing Kikyo? To Inuyasha meeting her alone even though she did terrible things to the two of them? To everyone constantly talking about how he still has feelings for her?

Surely he must know, after everything they've been through, that it can't compare, that he is the one Kagome is in love with. And since he does know, how dare he ever doubt her?

And of course that, from Inuyasha's point of view, Koga putting his arms around her is a huge deal. She complains about how every time he sees Kikyo they "float off into their own little world" but the truth is that except for the kiss she laid on him and the goodbye one they shared when she passed away for good — none of which had romantic conotations —, his interactions with Kikyo were pretty sterile, especially if juxtaposed with Kagome's interactions with Koga.

Kikyo is dead and isn't romantically interested in Inuyasha, nor is he romantically interested in her, but Koga certainly is into Kagome. Just because it isn't reciprocal yet, doesn't mean it hasn't potential to be.

Koga is the one regularly inserting himself into her personal space and she lets him, even though he did terrible things to the two of them. And so how can he be sure she doesn't like it? And how exactly is that different from the dynamic they share? Was she, after all, just being nice with him too and nothing more?

Surely she must know, after everything they've been through, that he only leaves because he has a duty to fulfil, but that he will always come back to her, that she is the one whose shoulders he puts his arm around. And since she does know, how dare she ever doubt him?

It's a classic case of miscommunication, but one that actually makes total sense, because they're just two teenagers navigating through extremely complex feelings in the worst possible circumstances.

They don't have the bigger picture the audience has and even if they did, their judgement would still be clouded by their jealousy, which keeps they stuck into their own perspectives.

And what makes even hard for them to get over these feelings is that they don't come from a place of ownership at all, but rather from a place of insecurity.

That's why Koga and Kikyo make up for such formidable rivals for Inuyasha and Kagome: it's not about the competition — the audience knows there isn't really one —, it's about the insecurities they bring out of the pairing, because they were carefully designed to do just that.

From the very beginning Kagome was being compared to Kikyo for being her reincarnation. She starts the story already having to measure up to her in power and once Kikyo actually enters the scene, Kagome is also taken aback by her beauty and elegance, but more than that: she feels like she can't compete because Kikyo "died for Inuyasha." One day he might return the favor.

For his part, Inuyasha has Koga to deal with. A good looking, uncomplicated man who has taken a like to Kagome and has absolutely nothing holding him back from pursuing her, while he has nothing to offer but a difficult past, an unstable present and an uncertain future. One day she could grow tired of it all and realize that Koga could give her everything he couldn't and leave for good.

In conclusion, all that jealousy is rooted in insecurities and in the fear of losing each other, which are completely understandable and absolutely valid .

The differece, I think, is that the narrative lets Inuyasha express his feelings of jealousy directly towards Koga, from insults to actual physical fights, without grand repercutions, while Kagome is never allowed allowed a similar outlet

But that's a topic for another day.

First Argument: Sake

English Dub

Not a single person left alive? That’s rather inconvenient…  You weren’t really thinking, were you, Jakotsu? You could’ve at least left a woman or two alive to pour our drinks. 

English Sub

A slaughter? Damn it! Jakotsu, this is your doing. Couldn’t you keep one woman alive to pour sake?

Manga English Translation

Shit, it’s no good. There’s not even one woman alive. Jakotsu, this is your doing, isn’t it? Could you at least leave enough women to pour sake for us?

Manga VIZBig Translation

PFF. What a pain. Not a single woman left alive. Jyakotsu, this was your doing, wasn’t it? You could have at least left one or two women to pour the sake.

One of two instances that could theoretically imply Bankotsu is attracted to women takes place in Episode 110, when Bankotsu laments the fact there aren’t any women to serve them.

The wording differs between anime and manga. Notably, in the anime, Bankotsu laments that Jakotsu killed everyone because it means there aren't any women to pour their drinks for them.

With this, it’s easy to notice something else about his dialogue, which is that he specifies— in all four variations— that there aren’t any women to pour their drinks.

Bankotsu could have, like most other men in the series, just asked Jakotsu to “leave some women” in a more ambiguous way, because typically, the era views women as something of commodities. They are servants, entertainers and objects of sexual desire, and requesting “women” in itself needs no specification.

Miroku, on more than one occasion, requests that villages they stay at “provide women” for them. He does not specify what they are providing them for because it is not considered necessary. 

Which is why I find it interesting that Bankotsu does specify that he wants the women specifically to pour their drinks for them.

In my opinion, this does not inherently indicate sexual attraction. It seems to be a very common thing socially, as there’s several instances of women pouring sake for male characters.

Miroku, Mushin, Gatenmaru + his bandits, Kansuke’s bandits and Chōkyukai are a handful of examples that we see. From what little we can surmise about InuYasha’s version of Feudal Japan, it seemed to be somewhat of a staple amongst restaurants and such to have women as entertainers and servers.

Bankotsu is complaining because now he’s pouring the sake for the both of them instead of outsourcing the work, and it’s putting a bit of a damper on his “unwind and relax with the boy” time because pouring drinks is cumbersome.

If they wanted to imply Bankotsu is upset because of the lack of women to ogle, they could’ve phrased it more like:

“You could’ve at least left the women alive for the rest of us” /  “You could’ve left some women alive for us”

That would’ve helped establish Bankotsu as heterosexual as well as serving to further “other” Jakotsu. The anime could’ve gone with the manga dialogue, which is closer to implying he’s upset he can’t get a peep.

Even with the manga dialogue though, there were ways they could have phrased it to emphasize or imply heterosexuality, but didn’t — “Couldn’t you have left the pretty [women] alive?”

Second Argument: Beautiful

English Dub

Hah… I’ve heard the rumours about you. Still, I’d never have guessed you’d be so beautiful.

English Sub

So… I heard the stories. But I never thought you’d be so beautiful.

The second instance that could act as evidence for Bankotsu being attracted to women is this part of his conversation with Kikyō, in which he calls her beautiful.

However, no matter the translation, what he says is more or less “I never thought you’d be [this/so] beautiful” which… Is something of a backhanded compliment.

But it also makes sense in the context. What Naraku told Bankotsu is that Kikyō is dead, a facsimile of her former self, as well as her relationship with Inuyasha 50 years ago. 

Naraku always seems to describe Kikyō in the least flattering way he can, which makes sense because he wants to separate himself from Onigumo as much as possible— in that regard, at least.

Naraku loves mentioning that Kikyō’s existence is a false one.

Before this point, Bankotsu had no idea what Kikyō looked like outside of any details Naraku might’ve told him. He starts the conversation by asking if she is Kikyō, implying he doesn’t have enough information to be sure. 

As far as Bankotsu likely knows, Kikyō is a priestess made of clay, bones and graveyard soil risen from the grave, sustaining her body on the souls of dead women. A body lacking any human warmth, a lost, wandering soul — and, well.

Kikyō’s beauty is something referenced quite a bit, whether it’s Inuyasha claiming she was cuter than Kagome in Episode 1, or the monk she kills trying to cover up his staring as being entranced by her beauty.

She is, in and outside of canon, very beautiful, described this way by multiple characters, including Kagome herself.

After saying he didn’t expect Kikyō to be so beautiful, Bankotsu uses what must certainly be a contender for most romantic pick-up line ever:

So, you want to take me on, do you? / Want to fight? 

He accepts her “invitation” to fight with no hesitation, and waits for her to shoot him with an arrow. This courtesy is not exclusive to Kikyō, as he also offers Renkotsu the first attack in their battle. 

So, to summarize this interaction: Bankotsu says Kikyō is prettier than he expected her to be, and then immediately asks to fight her.

Bankotsu’s Interactions with Other Women

Bankotsu really doesn’t interact with the female characters basically at all. The only direct interaction outside of Kikyō that I recall him having is this one, right after Kagome shoots him in the arm and disintergrates his flesh.

Well, girl. You’ll regret that.

The English subtitles provided by Netflix are “Bitch.. How dare you?”, which is quite a chucklefest. But just for clarification, the actual line in Japanese is:

“Onna (woman)... Temē (you, derogatory)”

He also recognizes her as being Kikyō’s reincarnation, Kagome, because of the sacred arrow. We know he knows Kagome’s name, as he refers to her as “that girl Kagome” when confronting Renkotsu about the shards, plus Inuyasha consistently yelling Kagome’s name out and demanding Bankotsu leave “Kagome and the others” out of their fights.

Bankotsu never really considered Kagome as a threat, even though he’s aware she’s Kikyō’s reincarnation. He doesn’t really pay any attention to Kagome. She might as well not exist to him, up until she forces him to consider her existence.

This view, while extending to the rest of Inuyasha’s friends as well, kind of extends to women as a whole for Bankotsu. They don’t seem to take up any space in Bankotsu’s mind. He is unconcerned with them.

The reason he isn’t interested in fighting any of Inuyasha’s friends is, because as far as he sees it, it’s two women, a child and a monk. He isn’t opposed to fighting women, but he has to believe they’re going to be worth the effort to fight.

Bankotsu seeks exclusively the strongest opponents, and also doesn’t seem to be particularly interested in battles involving spiritual powers. (As he later says he does not care for them.)

Based on the fighting styles of the main cast, the only one of Inuyasha’s friends he’d have any interest in fighting is Sango, and she hasn’t piqued his interest either. In fact, he’s had absolutely no interactions with her.

The only reason he’s open to fighting Kikyō is because she’s Kikyō — hard to read, very strong, undead and initiating the fight by pointing her bow and arrow at him, though it doesn’t happen. 

Comparison to Hiten

Bankotsu and Hiten share similarities outside of their design, namely that they both tell Inuyasha that he shouldn’t concern himself with Kagome. Their biggest difference is that

Hiten is actively written to be heterosexual.

He is implied to be sleeping with this woman “Vixen” and Manten references him as pulling the ladies. Hiten is a playboy who willfully discards “Vixen” and serves up a batch of Crispy Fried Woman, because as he’ll later reiterate, women are not actually important to him. They’re commodities, not worth avenging, not worth giving up the Sacred Jewel shards.

With Bankotsu, any interest in women he seems to have is circumstantial at best.

Even among characters who aren’t womanizers, it’s still fair to say they’re attracted to women. Inuyasha, Hōjō, Nobunaga, Kōga, Shippō, Sōta — for the men who aren’t playboys, it’s usually shown as them being chivalrous and treating women like people, for the most part.

Bankotsu doesn’t have that, and certainly isn’t a playboy, as Bankotsu doesn’t do casual in any relationship. Which would have to mean that, if Bankotsu was heterosexual, he wouldn’t have met the “right” woman yet…

…But because the “right” woman for Bankotsu quite literally, does not exist in canon, neither does any significant evidence to support the idea he’s heterosexual.

In conclusion: There’s no reason to believe Bankotsu is straight outside of the outdated idea that heterosexuality is the “default” sexuality.

The story of InuYasha takes place in the timespan of about a year, but the main cast runs into and has significant interactions with an openly homosexual man— two, if you count Suzaku. 

In addition to that, they have Sesshōmaru, who never displays attraction to anyone because he’s ‘above’ it, and Jaken who is seemingly desperately in love with him.

There are close friendships amongst men that border homoerotic at times, such as Ginkotsu sacrificing his life for Renkotsu in an explosion of love, or Ginta and Hakkaku’s entire ordeal.

There’s Byakuya of the Dreams, who wears lipstick and enjoys teasing Sesshōmaru — a prime example of Rumiko Takahashi’s deep, deep love for femboy twinks.

Kohaku is both never shown having crushes on girls the way Shippō and Sōta, both younger, are, and is also a sensitive young boy who hangs out in flower fields in secret and whose father brings into battle, eerily reminiscent of the “taking your son hunting to tough him up.”

Does that mean any of the characters I listed are gay? Not so much as it means it’s equally plausible they are. Sometimes more plausible.

He's also a good guy, and that helps.

So it's not so much that Inuyasha fulfills an emotional need — he simply complements her personality. Meanwhile, he's not all fight; he's gentle in their moments alone later on, he keeps his promises, believes in her, reminds her of her worth when she's feeling insecure, and always shows up for her no matter what, which includes unsolicited visits to her house or room.

He's a kind person and also a protector of not just her, but everyone she cares about.