I am an American, with no Asian heritage that I know of, and none likely either, so I can’t have a full and proper understanding of Japanese mythology and legends. I only speak in terms of what I see in the manga I’ve read and the few things I’ve seen in movies. With that in mind, here’s what I see…
The manga story, Inuyasha, seems to divide the animal kingdom into four parts. There are true animals, demons, humans and gods that inhabit the world. The title character is a half-demon. That is to say that he is the product of a union between a demon and a human. I don’t remember seeing any character designated as a half-god, or half-animal, so I assume that there can be no union between any of the combinations except for demons and humans; not in a physical sense at least. The gods of Inuyasha’s world seem to be powerful creatures, who have great, but not infinite, power. The humans are just people and have only the power that flesh and bone and muscle can provide. The exception being those who use sorcery or mysticism, just as in western mythology. The demons of Inuyasha though, come in a great variety of forms, and are interesting in their variety. It should be noted that gods and demons, in this context, are physical beings. They have extremely long lives and are very powerful, but they can be killed. They are not spiritual beings, as in the Christian concept of gods, demons and devils.
To start with, there are demons who seem to be mindless, and grotesque. They live only to devour and destroy. They are easily controlled by more powerful demons and they’re relatively easy for humans to dispatch. The lowest of these have no fear and are driven only by the need to feed and reproduce. The more advanced of them, which border on being intelligent to some small degree, can experience fear. It’s as if they realize that there are more powerful creatures than they, and they wish to extend their own lives if they can.
Then there are demons that have a fully animal form. Often, they are larger versions of the animal life that they resemble; a lizard that’s twenty feet long, or a toad that’s as tall as a man. Sometimes these animal demons are normal-sized for their type, but they have the ability to either absorb or inhabit a human host. They may have other powers to draw upon. There is a demon horse in the story that looks and acts much the same as any horse, but it can fly and breathe fire. Most of these will have the intelligence it takes to know and understand what they’re doing, and can converse with each other and with humans.
Close to that are the humanoid demons. Those who have a vaguely human shape; two arms, two legs, and a head. From a distance they might be mistaken for humans, but close up they can be seen to have distinctly non-human features. They may have horns, or scales, or be overly large with thick skins of nonhuman colors. These, too, will usually be able to speak and to act as a group. It’s also not uncommon for this type to brandish weapons and to have goals beyond mere survival.
Beyond that are the demons who have a mostly human shape, but there is some tell-tale trait that gives away the demon heritage and the species that they originate from. One of the main characters of Inuyasha is a fox-demon. He has the reddish hair, ears, and tail of his fox background. There is another recurring character that is a wolf-demon, with a wolf tail. Apparently, there is a counterpart demon variety for just about every form of animal life. Most of these have the intelligence of a human and can speak with their animal kind as easily as they can speak with humans.
At the top of the stack are the most powerful demons; those who choose to go about in human, or near human form. They are often super intelligent and beautiful. They have no fear, even in the face of almost certain destruction, as they know instinctively that they are among the most powerful creatures to walk the earth. Inuyasha’s half-brother is one of these. He would almost go unnoticed in a group of humans, except that he has pointed ears and he is almost too handsome to be real. These demons have exceptional strength and mystic powers. If this one is anything to go by, their main motivation is to gather power unto themselves. Seshomaru (the brother) certainly doesn’t care for wealth, or possessions, as he has neither. In close to 550 episodes we have not seen his home or been told that he has one. All he carries with him are the clothes that he wears, two swords and his few companions. These demons usually have an alternate form, a true form, that they can change into at will. In this case, it is the form of a dog of immense proportions. They view humans with contempt and, at best, disassociate themselves from human communities and, at worst, attempt to destroy humans at every opportunity.
There are still other demons that don’t really fit into these wide categories. There is a mother demon, that spontaneously emerged from the sorrow of all the mothers who lost their children due to war and famine and disease. There is the demon who watches over the souls of children who died until they can go on to the next life. There are demons born of sorrow and pain and loneliness. There are demons created with evil magic and those who were once human, but they let greed or vengeance or lust destroy their humanity.
Somewhere between the animal demons and the full demons there are the half-demons. Their appearance varies widely, from almost human to horrific monstrosities. Inuyasha was born of a human mother who was the wife of a full-blood dog-demon. His nemesis is a half-demon by virtue of giving himself over to demons in order to get what he wanted. Inuyasha would appear to anyone as a human, except that he has dog ears. His enemy, Naraku, can at times appear fully human, but in later episodes he abandons this ruse and takes on a form meant to intimidate and horrify. They are part human and part demon, but not fully accepted by either, and this is the hidden message in this manga title. They are different and they’re abused by both human and demon. They are feared by the former and seen as inferiors by the latter. It is the same in human society, for real and today.
As given in Inuyasha, the message is handled with care, if not subtlety. Our children are people too, and we created them. It’s not their fault who their parents are and they should not be turned away because of the fact of their ancestry. Inside of every person there is good and there is evil. With just a little nudge, any of us can be pushed to one side or the other and any one of us can make that nudge turn a person into a dear friend or a dangerous enemy. If you want a real life example, try this: Adolf Hitler applied to the Vienna school of Arts, but he was turned down, so he turned instead to politics. To think that all of World War II might have been avoided by letting the man come and paint a few pictures…
