Another prevailing, and honestly extremely concerning “argument” I have seen shippers cling too is their opinion that a 13/14 year old is an adult.
It’s scientific fact that a 13/14 year old human is biologically and mentally a child. This opinion, because it very much is one, is dangerous and perpetuates the sexualization of minors. Shippers like claiming and stating that R*n was “of age” when she became romantically involved with S*esshomaru, saying that both InuYasha and Y*shahime are historically accurate. They aren’t, and never claimed to be. Rumiko and the production crew of BOTH shows have repeatedly emphasized that the story is not, in any way, historically accurate.
One of the most obvious examples showing that a 14 years old is not considered an adult in both the manga and the anime is the moment when Miroku asks an 11 year old child named Koharu to marry him. Through circumstances Miroku leaves, and a few years later when Koharu is 14 (still a child) she finds Miroku and asks to marry him.
In both the manga and the anime Sango, Kagome, Shippo, and InuYasha react with extreme revulsion, and move away from Miroku in disgust. Sango and Kagome then run up to Miroku and blatantly yell at him for perpetuating such disgusting behavior, and Sango gets Miroku to admit that he was wrong, and that Koharu is a child.
It is important to note that Sango, InuYasha, and Shippo are all from the Feudal Era, and react with disgust and call out Miroku constantly for his lecherous and often pedophilic actions, none of which they excuse and strongly condemn.
Furthermore, Setsuna and Moroha were born and raised in the Feudal Era, and are referred and addressed to as children and young girls throughout the entirety of Yashahime. As are other children their age. So when shippers claim R*n is an adult when she was 14 at the twins birth, they basically negate the fact that her daughters are the same age in present time. They are literally saying that Rin can be an adult at 14 but her 14 year old daughters can’t. See the problem? Rin’s age doesn’t actually matter to shippers, it only matters when shippers try to defend their problematic ship when speaking with other people who disagree with them. Rin is and has been a child throughout the history of the InuYasha franchise, and she has been depicted and characterized as such.
The reason people continue to rightfully criticize and comment on this problematic ship is because it perpetuates and idealizes a pedophilic and abusive relationship between an adult and a minor. Fiction influences the audience that consumes it; why else do writers become writers? Animators become animators? Or people in the film industry do what they do? Fiction inspired them to get there, and it’s what keeps them there. We are influenced by entertainment media every day; cosplayers, fanartists, fanfiction writers—we make blogs dedicated to them, and learn lessons from our favorite stories and shows that we carry/implement throughout our entire life. Some stories even drastically influence/affect people to the point where it becomes their job or life passion.
That is why representation is important, it’s why stories are so powerful; it’s because fiction affects reality, and to deny that is to deny the meaning and purpose of stories and the human condition in the first place.
