Sango (InuYasha)
Sango (珊瑚, "coral") is a character in the manga and anime series Inuyasha.
Sango is a highly skilled yōkai exterminator (妖怪退治屋, yōkai taijiya). She is a member of a group of exterminators trained to kill yōkai. Sango, like all other children of the village, had been training to master the art of an exterminator from a very young age. Her preferred weapon is a gigantic boomerang made of the bones of yōkai, and it is called the Hiraikotsu.
Discovery of the Truth
It turned out that Naraku was behind all this. While the five strongest exterminators were away from their home village, Naraku ordered scores of yōkai to attack the village and in turn gain possession of the five pieces of the Shikon no Tama the exterminators had.
Sango, who miraculously survived, digs her way out of the grave, only to be found by the young Hitomi Kagewaki who briefly tends her wounds. Naraku comes to the young lord and tells him about how Sango's village was raided by a yōkai named Inuyasha while they were here fighting the false yōkai. Sango overhears this "news" and is heart-broken. Enraged she demands her weapon and swears to kill Inuyasha at all costs. Naraku appears to be kind and "lends" her a piece of the Shikon no Tama to suppress the pain from her wounds so she can fight Inuyasha without worrying about her wounds holding her back.
Sango meets Inuyasha and the group not long after she left the castle. Immediately she engages in a battle that Inuyasha does not want to fight in. Naraku was watching closely with a yōkai puppet and sends the Saimyōshō to deter Miroku from using his Kazāna. It seems like Sango has the upper hand by using her poison gas to fend off Inuyasha's attacks, but Inuyasha easily discovers that if he knocks off her mask she would not be able to use such an effective defense. Having done so, Inuyasha 'saves' Sango from her own poison gas after knocking off her mask. Puzzled as to why Inuyasha, the yōkai who supposedly killed her entire village would save her, she stabs him in the arm with her Katana. Inuyasha then bluntly points out that Naraku was tricking her and that she was bleeding rather badly. Sango is shocked to see that he was right because she had felt no pain from her wounds, soon afterword she passes out. She awakens on Inuyasha's back and only after assurances and explanations from Kagome does Sango feel as if she can "trust" Inuyasha for the time being.
Naraku's Saimyōshō escape with the Shard of the Jewel he lent Sango and she loses consciousness due to blood loss. When she wakes up, they make it back to her village, where Sango finds out that they had already paid proper respects to all the villagers, who died defending the village without their strongest warriors from the onslaught of yōkai.
The group learns from Sango that the Shikon no Tama has close ties with her village, and Sango in time realized the true nature of Naraku and joins the group.
She is a valiant warrior in battle as she is the best yōkai exterminator from the village, and with her Hiraikotsu she is not an opponent to be taken lightly. She hopes to defeat Naraku and be reunited with Kohaku who was resurrected by Naraku with a Shikon Shard to do his biddings.
She develops deep feelings towards Miroku and accepts his proposal that they should get married if they ever defeat Naraku, even though his lecherous behavior is not likely to change.
Names
- Sango means "coral".
Truthfully the word sango does mean coral but the kanji for sango the character and sango meaning coral are different
Voice Actor
Japanese Seiyū: Houko Kuwashima
English Voice Actor: Kelly Sheridan
Special Attacks
- Hiraikotsu (Kanji: 飛来骨, Hiragana: ひらいこつ, English: Boomerang Bone) - The name of Sango's giant boomerang, and also the name of the attack using it. It was made from the bone of a yōkai, and this makes it nearly unbreakable and powerful. 'Hi-' means 'flying', 'rai-' means 'thunder' and '-kotsu' means 'a bone'.
- Yōkai Paralyzing Poisons (毒分, dokufun) - Sango's knowledge of various poisons (particularly ones that affect only yōkai) is extensive, and she employs a few different kinds throughout the series. She wears a custom-fit gas mask to protect herself from some of the more potent ones.
- Dagger gauntlet - Hidden in the sleeve of her kimono is a retractable dagger, but she rarely uses it.
- Katana - A weapon that she sometimes uses in close combat or if she loses Hiraikotsu, but she prefers her main weapon.
- Chain- uses the chain as a whip and constrict foes.
- Kirara- her pet that aids her in battle and who she flies on.
Friends
- Inuyasha - Inuyasha feels sorry for her first, but comes to greatly respect her skill as a fighter.
- Kagome - She and Sango quickly become friends, particularly because they are the only females in the group.
- Shippō - One of her good friends and travelling companions, but Shippō is generally much closer to Kagome and Kirara.
- Miroku - A lecherous young monk. He tries to move in on Sango frequently, but gets shot down each time due to his groping and his attention to every other young woman the group meets. You can usually spot Miroku with a mark on his cheek, a brand of sorts from his misdeeds around Sango. However, they actually make good partners, and are occasionally seen going off by themselves without the rest of the group. In a later episode he proposes to Sango, and she accepts. However, she then shoots him down by asking if he would stop asking other girls to "bear his child", or effectively, cheat on her. But his failure to answer her question had no effect, and they are both still engaged.
- Kirara - Sango's "pet", who looks like a small cat and can transform to a huge flying fire cat. Kirara is a nekomata demon. Kirara is fiercely loyal to Sango. It is hinted in the anime that Kirara (or one of her ancestors) was once the companion of Midoriko, creator of the Shikon no Tama, which would mean that Kirara is very old.