Inuyasha Keychain
- Naaraku
- approx. 2 inches tall
- laseretched
- Bandai
Inuyasha (犬夜叉, lit. "Dog Yaksha") is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from November 1996 to June 2008, with its chapters collected in 56 tankōbon volumes. The series begins with Kagome Higurashi, a fifteen-year-old middle school girl from modern-day Tokyo who is transported to the Sengoku period after falling into a well in her family shrine, where she meets the half-dog demon, half-human Inuyasha. After the sacred Shikon Jewel re-emerges from deep inside Kagome's body, she inadvertently shatters it into dozens of fragments that scatter across Japan. Inuyasha and Kagome set to recover Jewel's fragments, and through their quest, they are joined by the lecherous monk Miroku, the demon slayer Sango, and the fox demon Shippō. Together, they journey to restore the Shikon Jewel before it falls into the hands of the evil half-demon Naraku.
Naraku (奈落) is the half-demon responsible for the misery of most of the main cast. He was born fifty years ago from the desires of a gravely burned bandit named Onigumo (鬼蜘蛛), who was found, sheltered and fed by Kikyo. Paralyzed by his injuries, Onigumo met a Small Spider Demon and forms a pact with the Small Spider Demon's friends. The surrounding demons attracted to his darkness consume him in return for his soul to occupy a new body created from their merged bodies so that he could satisfy his frustrated lust for Kikyo. But Naraku instead orchestrated Kikyo's death and Inuyasha's imprisonment, biding his time until the Shikon Jewel resurfaced in the Feudal Era. Assuming the appearance of a feudal lord, Naraku spends most of the series modifying his body while attempting to remove what little humanity he had left. In the end, he is destroyed by Inuyasha's Meidō Zangetsuha in the manga, while purified by Kagome's wish in the anime version.