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Speaking Facts!

Takahashi Rumiko Book - 2019 - Partial English Translation

There is definitely more to this interview, the bit with Sango and Miroku is definitely separate from what Takahashi-sensei is saying in regards to Sesshomaru (“That’s definitely an aspect of it” ~).  But these were all of the pictures and images that were provided in this weibo post:

https://card.weibo.com/article/m/show/id/2309404494446321336761

I want to give a shout out and thanks to the individual who posted these images over on weibo and to both @moonandwind for bringing this interview to my attention and @goldfish-er for the link. Translation Notes will be at the end.

— Did you have an idea from the beginning that he and Sango would love one another?

Takahashi: I just went along with the story, and that was how it turned out. Sango is burdened with such a fierce past that only Miroku can contain it.

—-

Takahashi: That’s definitely an aspect of it. Sesshomaru is one of the characters I had a lot of emotional attachment to when I drew him.

— At the start, he seemed like he was cold hearted, and I believe that the first time we see that change is when he saves Rin. After that, it makes his various moments depicted with Kagura even more poignant.

Takahashi: Though it is similar to what I talked about with Sango and Miroku, in the beginning Kagura wasn’t supposed to be as entangled with Sesshomaru as she was. She starts to ask for freedom pretty early on, [saying] things like, “I am the wind,” you know. That’s when her character started to take on a life of her own. It’s sad, but as long as Naraku was around, Kagura wouldn’t be free in this world, so at some point, I decided it was time for her to leave behind something significant for Sesshomaru and the others, and bow out of the story.

— Out of the numerous scenes in “Inuyasha,” her death scene is one of the greatest and most famous scenes in the series. As you said, her last moments left something behind for the main characters, as well as Sesshomaru. Like later, when Mōryōmaru spoke of Kagura’s passing as a “pathetic death,” that moment when Sesshomaru, who is acting so unlike himself and loses his temper, is also quite intense.

Takahashi: That went with the flow of a shonen manga (lol). In that sense, Sesshomaru is an easy character to understand, so it was relatively easy to draw him. He was already a popular character from the start, but I feel that he got even more popular after that moment.

—

Translation Notes:

The word that is used for Kagura being “entangled” with Sesshomaru is からめる (karameru), it is often used in the context of something like “strings being tangled up with each other” etc. Here it is implying a sense of “involvement” or “engagement” or “association.” But, I also feel that there is that imagery of their story lines and characters becoming interwoven together, and I wanted to keep that imagery, so I went with “entangled.”

When talking about Kagura “leaving some significant behind” the Japanese used is 大きなものを残して (ooki na mono wo nokoshite). Ooki can mean “big,” but it can also mean something like “major” or “significant,” which sound better and more fitting here than “something big.” And the use of もの (mono) is interesting here, since it implies a more physical thing that was left behind. But I rewatched her death scene, and the only physical thing she left behind was a feather. So, given that and what the interviewer ends up talking about, I feel Takahashi-sensei is referring more to her death having left a significant impact on Sesshomaru and the others.

And last, Takahashi-sensei refers to Kagura as “bowing out of the story.” The Japanese she uses is 退場 (taijyou), which means “exit (from a stage), leave,  go away (from), walk out (of), make one’s exit (from), and etc.”