Welcome All My Pumkins

So Inuyasha is my life, InuKag is my otp. I desperately want Moroha to end up with Hisui. he’s probably going to end up with Setsuna. WHICH IS FINE THEY BE CUTE TO BUT YOU KNOW-

[littlepumkinseed]

List of repost for my friend, We’re doing an anime bet

We got a month, he’s watching Inuyasha I’m watching Fullmetal!

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

He’s trying to count how many people in this cursed love triangle.

[littlepumkinseed]

Regular is just as good ❤️ but human inu is sensitive 🥲

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

[littlepumkinseed]

He don’t get it.

[littlepumkinseed]

He’s bacK! He’s back. He took a break than he lost his phone! So now he’s watching and updating me over discord.

[littlepumkinseed]

[brain-rot-hour]

Many happy birfs, @jewel-shard 💚💚💚

I’m so late. I will never not be late this year kejrngok

[littlepumkinseed]

I loooove how the hair looks

[wanologic]

10% of danny rumors on campus are 100% true

[goblinhoursinsomniaramblings]

i love the idea of people with superpowers having their own unique problems woth lowered inhibitions. oh, you got drunk and tried to booty call an ex? cool, cool, Danny started an urban legend cause he thought it'd be cool if his lab partners had sustained visions of a dimension of eternal nightmares

[dumpsterbabykuriza]

piccolo loves gohan so much <3

[stupidfuckingquestions]

[zebablah-deactivated20160105]

television history

[virginmarx]

i’ve been trying to explain this sketch to people for years

[real-faker]

there is literally no way to explain this sketch it’s just a thing you have to see and even then I’m not sure why it’s so funny

[traycakes]

“Dear Sister” is the rare SNL sketch making fun of a specific pop culture moment that transcended the thing it is a satire of. No one remembers the OC but the sketch is still wonderful regardless.

[cinemaocd]

So I’m sure the lore is in the notes but here it is reconstructing from the rusty leaking trap of my memory: the Canadian show Degrassi used this music cue when the character Drake got shot. The OC used it in the exact same way the following year in an episode when Marissa shoots Trey. They also used different parts of this same song earlier in the episode at Caleb’s funeral. Actually connecting it to the the running theme of death/endings through the episode.

and SNL finally was just like enough already with the “Hide and Seek”

[asymbina]

it’s the overlapping music cues that kill me

[otomae]

[harocat]

Why Inuyasha fans should watch hit Chinese fantasy drama Love Game in Eastern Fantasy.

This wonderful art was created by Sparky! You can find her twt account here, and if you're interested in commissioning something yourself, her vgen account here.

I promised I'd make this post, and I also promised I'd commission some chibis of the lead pairs from both shows swapping outfits as to entice you, so here we go. If the adorable art isn't enough to convince you, read this way!

Love Game in Eastern Fantasy is a 2024 Chinese fantasy drama starring Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi. It's thirty-two episodes long. The show has been a big hit in China due to its charming storyline, hilarious meta-humor, strong performances, beautiful costumes and sets, and well crafted characters. Let me get this out of the way first; yes, that is the English title of the series, and yes it's a pretty bad and unappealing sounding title. It's not uncommon for English titles of Chinese dramas to be kind of terrible. I promise it does not reflect the quality of the series itself. The original Chinese title is 永夜星河 (Yong Ye Xing He: Eternal Night of Starry River). This, although pretty, doesn't have much to do with the series either. For the rest of the post, I will be abbreviating the title to LGIEF.

Let's start with an introduction of our lead characters, then we'll go into why I think Inuyasha fans specifically will enjoy this series, although it should become quite obvious along the way.

Ling Miaomiao

Funny, compassionate, and clever, Ling Miaomiao is a young woman from the twenty-first century who is transmigrated out of her boring every day work life and into the novel Catching Demons. Once inside, she retains her memories of the real world and is given two main tasks by 'the system', the mysterious force that governs her stay in this parallel world; the first one is to stop the catastrophe of heaven, a potentially world ending event, and the second... is to make the second male lead of the original novel, a standoffish, suspicious young man named Mu Sheng, fall in love with her.

The problem is that she hasn't been transmigrated as Ling Miaomiao, but is instead in the body of the character of Lin Yu, the second female lead of the original novel, as well as an antagonist. Well, Ling Miaomiao doesn't have it in her to be a villain, and besides how can she capture the affection of Mu Sheng that way? It turns out that the best way to do so is by being herself. But of course, as goes in these stories, she didn't expect to fall in love along the way.

Miaomiao is, in addition to having one of the best wardrobes I've ever seen, so charming, so cute, so amusing, and such a sunshine of a character. She's not pliant. She sticks to her guns and doesn't take shit, but she's also kind, tolerant, accepting, and borderline fearless at times. Esther Yu has wonderful comic timing. She is a delight.

Mu Sheng

Courtesy name 'Ziqi', and what I'll be referring to him as in this post. Ziqi is the second male lead in the novel Catching Demons and the adopted younger brother of the novel's protagonist, Mu Yao. He's very close to his sister, and his self esteem is debilitatingly low, to the point he sees protecting her as the only reason for his existence. In the original novel, he becomes an antagonist at a later point.

Ziqi and his sister, Mu Yao, are demon catchers. They're both powerful cultivators (magic users) and warriors. Her family (and his adopted family--- sort of) were all killed by a powerful demon called the Resentful Woman about a decade before, and Mu Yao is on a quest to find her and defeat her, with Ziqi tagging along. But Ziqi has a secret, and it's one that he is terrified of his sister, who abhors demons, finding out. He is half demon himself. A gold ribbon he wears in his hair at all times protects him, keeping his true identity hidden unless it's removed.

He loathes his heritage and sees it as shameful-- until Ling Miaomiao comes along. Ziqi is brusque, angry, and bitter. He has a front of bravado, but is DEEPLY insecure. He starts out very rude. He's love starved but shirks away from love. He's jaded, but extremely innocent. He's a tsundere (even described as such in official material, which I found funny). His actor pulls off the best sad kitten eyes any man ever has, and your heart will break for him.

To clarify, although in the original novel Catching Demons, Ziqi and Miaomiao are not the leads, in the drama Love Game in Eastern Fantasy, they 300% are! This is a story about what happens when the second leads... become the leads.

Other Major Characters

Mu Yao- Ziqi's adopted older sister. He is extremely close to and protective of her, but her hatred of demons due to her past makes it so revealing his secret seems impossible. Mu Yao is a demon catcher from the famous Mu clan, which has been the most prominent demon catching clan for nine hundred years. She is friendly and no-nonsense, and as the story continues, she grows and matures in her views. She is very close to Ling Miaomiao, and she is in love with the original male lead of the novel, Liu Fuyi.

Liu Fuyi- The original male lead of the novel. He starts out quite 'wooden', which I think is deliberate because Ling Miaomiao even commented on him being a badly written character as she read the original novel. However, as the story goes on and he becomes more of a real person, he fills out and ends up likable. Stalwart, calm, and noble, he is in love with Mu Yao but dares not say it. He has a more nuanced, less prejudiced view of demons than Mu Yao does.

Cuicui- The last member of our group of demon catching travelers. Cuicui is a young bamboo demon who quickly bonds with Ling Miaomiao, sneaking along by turning himself into a bamboo hair pin she wears. He is very Shippou in that he adores LMM and bickers with Ziqi, but I actually do like him a lot better than his Inuyasha counterpart. He's quite useful, and he forms a pretty sweet bond with Ziqi over time. I have read that Cuicui is not ever gendered in the original series, but as I'm unsure of this, I defaulted to the gender of his actor (who is a total cutiepie btw).

You can very much see even from here how the main cast really fills those Inuyasha roles! Together, they are the Four Bamboo Masters.

(Actual art of the Four Bamboo Masters+Cuicui by artist extraordinaire Ling Miaomiao)

The World

The universe of Catching Demons is a fantasy ancient China filled with yao which is the Mandarin Chinese word for demons of the variety featured in the series. If you understand youkai, you somewhat understand yao.

Japanese "yokai" is the Japanese transliteration or pronunciation of the Chinese term "yaoguai" and involves similarly strange creatures, with both languages using the same Chinese characters to describe them. ( x )

Yao in this world are for the most part, morally neutral, but are generally viewed as evil by humans. Those that are evil often ended up going that direction because of humanity's actions toward them. They can form from aspects of nature; bamboo, foxes, water, cats, birds, etc. There are also object based yao based on mirrors, paintbrushes, etc. Inuyasha fans will definitely see some similarities in the folklore between the series.

As with many high budget Chinese dramas, the settings are beautiful and atmospheric, capturing both the gorgeous architecture, clothing, etc. of a fantasy ancient China, as well as the nature and magic of this specific world. The effects are quality for a tv production, and the costumes, makeup, and wigs are next level. There's so much rich detail in them. Ling Miaomiao's hair ornaments alone deserve an entire post praising them.

Since this is also a transmigration story, the mechanics of 'the system' often come into play. This results in some of the best humor in the series. Ling Miaomiao's battle with the system is hilarious and clever. It's rendered as if it is a video game, with LMM in the early episodes 'dying' and having to respawn... many, many times. In order to clear her mission, Ling Miaomiao must get Mu Sheng to 100% favorability toward her, which is calculated adorably by little mushroom shaped demons.

One of the biggest appeals of the series is Miaomiao's modern mind set in this ancient world, and the fact that since she believes this to be just a novel at first, she is hysterically meta, often commenting on the quality of the story and well...

The Love Story

This love story is like crack to Inuyasha/Kagome fans (aka me). You should have gotten the vibe of the obvious character similarities from above, but their romance plays with so many of the tropes that made InuKag great and pulls them off so well. It doesn't feel like a rehash, it just happens to use similar tropes to great impact.

Look, this scene is spoiler-y for episode eleven, but I just think that if anything is going to sell you on this show, it's probably going to be this scene, so watch it.

In it, Ziqi has been forced to remove his hair ribbon to battle a demon, because he's not near strong enough without doing so. The rest is self explanatory from the video.

This is a really gentle love story. It has a lot of what I love about InuKag, which is a casual intimacy, a soft, sometimes unspoken affection, and a chemistry between the characters that speaks of a deep connection that goes far beyond just their romantic attraction. These are two people that click, and it's beautiful to watch the way they impact each other. It's about support, belief, trust, and acceptance. They start off very much on the wrong foot, as our intrepid lovers in IY do, but when they come together, it's all of that and more, plus a level of playful bickering.

I, Mu Ziqi, swear to the heavens that if I lose you somehow, I'll come back to find you. No matter how far it is, no matter how hard it is, I will bring you back.

And I am not the only one who has noticed the similarities to Inuyasha:

Plus all the likes and reblogs on this post.

What else does the show have to offer?

I don't really want to go further into spoilers, but I love the themes of this story. It's about learning to love yourself, trust, and compassion of course, but it also ends up being a super uplifting commentary on the power of storytelling, memory, the impact fiction can have on us, the way love is laced into everything we create, and the power simple acts of kindness can have. The value of this series goes far beyond just being similar to Inuyasha, although that's definitely a plus.

Famous last words from early series Ling Miaomiao. Girl, you have no idea.

Does it have a happy ending?

Yes. I will leave it at that.

But I've never watched a Chinese drama...

This is a great place to start. There's little to nothing that should confuse you as a first time watcher. It's a perfect introduction.

Where can I watch it?

Luckily, unlike a lot of Cdramas, LGIEF is extremely accessible and available on several streaming sites. It's on Netflix, Viki, and WeTV. If you have a Netflix account, it's there right now!! Audio is Mandarin Chinese of course, but subtitles are available in several languages.

If you do watch it, let me know! And make sure to share this post of course.

I watched LGIEF and I loved it (of course). What should I watch next?

Here's a few Chinese dramas that are readily available streaming, that I think LGIEF fans would enjoy:

Love Between Fairy and Devil (thirty-six episodes, streaming on Netflix, Viki, and IQIYI): When a low-ranked fairy accidentally resurrects a powerful demon, their fates become cosmically entangled as the world is thrown into turmoil.

For me, not just my favorite fantasy drama of all time, but my favorite drama period. Like LGIEF, this drama stars Esther Yu in the role of the heroine. One of the screenwriters is also the same as LGIEF, and much of the production team is similar.

This is a gorgeous story of the redemptive power of love of all kinds, of breaking the cycle of war, and of defying fate no matter the cost. A fantastic cast, stunning costumes, and the best soundtrack ever. If you're like me and are wary of the 'good girl changes the bad boy' trope, don't be. Dongfang Qingcang (the male lead) is an amazing character; he's deep and layered and complex, and he is never actually a villain. His trauma is convincing, and everything about him is so, so good. Xiao Lanhua is the heroine. Her character arc is so lovingly done. The two leads don't change for each other, they change because of each other. It's simultaneously one of the funniest dramas I've ever seen and devastatingly heartbreaking. You will laugh, you will cry. Happy ending though, I promise.

The Romance of Tiger and Rose (twenty-four episodes, streaming on Amazon Prime, WeTV, and Viki): A young screenwriter falls ill while working on a script and wakes up as one of her characters.

Confession that I am still working on watching this one, but it's quite popular and the first episodes are charming. It's mainly on here because it stars Ding Yuxi (Ziqi) as the love interest in another transmigration story. It's also not as long as a lot of other dramas, so it's a bit less of a commitment. It's a well known drama that is highly rated in most places.

Destined (forty episodes, streaming on IQIYI): Liu Yuru has suffered in her family; her only hope is to marry her crush, but fateful events force her to marry a rumored playboy from a rich family.

This is not the most appealing summary, but I promise it's misleading. This show is good. The main couple is ride or die, and they become best friends long before they become a couple. The heroine is extremely smart, capable, and business savvy. The hero is charming, funny, and so charismatic. It's the most fun you will ever have watching people do business (I kid; there is business, but there is so much more to the plot). The supporting cast is fantastic, and the relationships!! Wonderful friendships between women, wonderful friendships between men, and wonderful platonic friendships between men and women. SUPER good at subverting tropes. This is a costume drama, not a fantasy, but you won't miss the magic. Oh and did I mention this is by the screenwriter behind LGIEF and LBFAD?

Love You Seven Times (thirty-eight episodes, streaming on IQIYI): It tells the story of Xiang Yun, a fairy from Marriage Pavilion who becomes entangled with the ancient God of War, Chu Kong. Because of this encounter, they must go through tribulations in the human world seven times.

Stars Ding Yuxi (Ziqi) in the role of the hero. An ultimately flawed, but still fun fantasy drama. Gorgeous costumes, wigs, sets, etc., and a lot of heart. Don't expect writing as slick as some of the other dramas here, but do expect to enjoy yourself watching these two immortals discover each other while fumbling throughout seven very different lifetimes. Each lifetime has its own very unique vibes and aesthetic, and seeing how they all pan out if half the fun. Plus, if you like Inuyasha, you absolutely must see the arc where Chu Kong becomes a cat demon.

Moonlight (thirty-six episodes, streaming on Amazon Prime, Viki, IQIYI): After graduating university with a major in financing, Chu Li successfully enters her dream company, Yuan Yue Publishing House. There she meets author Zhou Chuan, who is said to be gentle as a jade when he's really not.

I can’t believe I forgot this at first! I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s a previous collaboration between Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi from 2021. If you enjoy their chemistry and the way they play off each other in LGIEF, you may want to check it out. It’s a modern romance drama, which isn’t as much my thing, but it’s deeply loved by a lot of drama fans and has great reviews.

[pachworldx-1]

𝙅𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙮💢

[born-for-eachother]

eXCUSE ME but Inuyasha was ready to crawl all the way to Kagome to hold her and try to wake her up…even though he was in bad shape himself and falling over. When he didn’t see her around at first, he panicked, eyes desperately scanning the island for her. And he’s absolutely furious; “How dare you hurt Kagome???” He would rather suffer any blow if it meant that she was safe. I’M JUST-

[callmehnad]

LIKE LITERALLY WE NEED TO TALK THIS MORE.. SKDJSJDJJK-

[gillotto]

Guess who saw Deadpool and Wolverine

[tamak0]

[whiteredrose13]

Inuyasha AU where Kagome is an over-caffeinated college student when she gets dragged down into the Feudal Era. Everything is mostly the same, except now she's like twenty times more reckless (still incredibly kind, though, just more chaotic while doing it) and even more pulled apart by her duties (friendships, school/career, the whole mess in the Feudal Era).

She just rocks up to every demon like:

"I haven't slept in three days, I'm running on two Red Bulls and spite, I have a paper due in two hours, and I fear not the laws of God nor man. You wanna hurt me? Better make it count. Better kill me in one shot."

Inuyasha is, conversely, even more annoyed by her, and a little terrified. And maybe a little more in love that he admits he is.

[shinidamachu]

Very specific Inukag type of angst I wish I found more in fics because it just hits different: Kagome slowly becoming indifferent to the love triangle drama and Inuyasha getting heart broken because he realizes he's losing her.

[shinidamachu]

Kagome coming back to the gang only to find out Inuyasha is not there and they fully expecting her to be angry or sad about it, but she's just genuinelly chill.

Inuyasha returning every time, ready for what was sure to be a fight, or the silent treatment, or Kagome storming home, but she wasn't waiting for him at all: he finds her sleeping or studying or interacting with their friends and she welcomes him as if nothing happened, ready to resume their quest.

Their friends still call him out, but now Kagome is more incisive in standing up for him and making them drop it. Inuyasha is happy at first, thinking Kagome finally understood she has nothing to worry about.

But then she says that, as their friends, they should be less judgemental and more supportive of Inuyasha and his choices. He also notices that her tolerance to his displays of jealousy went down to zero and that she has been talking more and more about her plans for when their journey is over, none of which involve him.

It gets to the point where Inuyasha is glad when he comes out of a battle with wounds that need to be dressed because that's the only occasion she ever touches him in a more intimate way, since she has been adamant on keeping a more appropriate physical distance from him lately.

BONUS: she starts bringing her bike to the Feudal Era more often to avoid having to ride on his back, so he "accidentally" breaks it.

[kitramune]

Even though I'm not one for this type of angst, this is a good opportunity to mention a canon divergent idea I got by listening to Meg Meyers' "The Morning After". It was basically a rewrite of the baby trying to steal Kagome's eyes arc, where she wakes up to Inuyasha there, but is way less okay. Inuyasha is way less okay too but after she didn't believe he'd prioritize saving her over Kikyou, he has a dream about their future being married and having Moroha, and it kind of snaps him out of his funk and he realizes he's being really stupid to risk losing his future for his past (I mean for real. Not the wishy washy "he realized but kept doing it anyway because precious Kikyou needs to be in the plot for teh dramaz" RT wrote him as.) So he doubles down on taking care of her and wooing her, but kind of has to win her back for a while cuz she's gotten apathetic. It had a happy ending where they properly clear the air about their issues and how they've both been forced to make very adult decisions as teens, but this reminded me of the angsty parts.

[littlepumkinseed]

Okay so like- who’s writing this one?? 😂

[shinidamachu]

Very specific Inukag type of angst I wish I found more in fics because it just hits different: Kagome slowly becoming indifferent to the love triangle drama and Inuyasha getting heart broken because he realizes he's losing her.

[shinidamachu]

Kagome coming back to the gang only to find out Inuyasha is not there and they fully expecting her to be angry or sad about it, but she's just genuinelly chill.

Inuyasha returning every time, ready for what was sure to be a fight, or the silent treatment, or Kagome storming home, but she wasn't waiting for him at all: he finds her sleeping or studying or interacting with their friends and she welcomes him as if nothing happened, ready to resume their quest.

Their friends still call him out, but now Kagome is more incisive in standing up for him and making them drop it. Inuyasha is happy at first, thinking Kagome finally understood she has nothing to worry about.

But then she says that, as their friends, they should be less judgemental and more supportive of Inuyasha and his choices. He also notices that her tolerance to his displays of jealousy went down to zero and that she has been talking more and more about her plans for when their journey is over, none of which involve him.

It gets to the point where Inuyasha is glad when he comes out of a battle with wounds that need to be dressed because that's the only occasion she ever touches him in a more intimate way, since she has been adamant on keeping a more appropriate physical distance from him lately.

BONUS: she starts bringing her bike to the Feudal Era more often to avoid having to ride on his back, so he "accidentally" breaks it.

[kitramune]

Even though I'm not one for this type of angst, this is a good opportunity to mention a canon divergent idea I got by listening to Meg Meyers' "The Morning After". It was basically a rewrite of the baby trying to steal Kagome's eyes arc, where she wakes up to Inuyasha there, but is way less okay. Inuyasha is way less okay too but after she didn't believe he'd prioritize saving her over Kikyou, he has a dream about their future being married and having Moroha, and it kind of snaps him out of his funk and he realizes he's being really stupid to risk losing his future for his past (I mean for real. Not the wishy washy "he realized but kept doing it anyway because precious Kikyou needs to be in the plot for teh dramaz" RT wrote him as.) So he doubles down on taking care of her and wooing her, but kind of has to win her back for a while cuz she's gotten apathetic. It had a happy ending where they properly clear the air about their issues and how they've both been forced to make very adult decisions as teens, but this reminded me of the angsty parts.

[cupidslyres]

Okay so I'm sure other people have brought this up, but you know how Kagome have square shaped bangs in the early manga?

Right! And everybody was like, 'woah, is that Kikyo!?'

Then we actually SEE Kikyo.

Very clear, square bangs.

But after a few chapters, Kagome's bangs become triangle.

People usually chalk this up to Rumiko having an inconsistent art style, and yes that could be a factor, my theory is more in story.

So after being compared to Kikyo all her time in the Feudal Era, and then actually meeting her, I think Kagome just decided to change her hair to stop the comments. Because even she acknowledges she doesn't look THAT much like her.

Compare and contrast, you know?

The anime doesn't have this change so when you first watch it, it's like "whaaat, she looks nothing like Kikyo" so that's why reading the manga is so spectacular!

[shinidamachu]

inukag was born to be shipped by me and I was born to ship inukag as well

For ages now I've been meaning to write about the reasons why I ship Inukag as fervently as I do and @inukag-week felt like the perfect opportunity to indulge myself, so here we go.

I want to start with how aesthetically pleasing they are. From their perfect size difference to the complimentary color scheme of their outfits plus contrasting hair and eye colors, Inuyasha and Kagome just look absolutely good together.

Their character design makes it clear from the get go that they're visually a great match. The association is so strong that the audience becomes unable to picture one without the other, as if they're two halves of the same item. Different, yet unequivocally a team, a pair.

Decades ago, they already had that classic quality to them and I bet they'd never get out of style even decades from now. And the rich lore that surrounds the pairing only adds to that aesthetic: the well, the tree, the beads, the robe, the sword, all of it enhances how iconic they are. Even something as ordinary as star gazing becomes uniquelly theirs.

Futhermore, I just absolutely love the entire concept of it. The subvertion of the fairy tale archetype, the idea of a love that transcends time, of soulmates who actually work on building their bond. Loving each other was both inevitable and a choice they made every single day.

Inuyasha and Kagome were just two teenagers from different worlds — literally and figurativelly — discovering together what love was. This made their relationship very compelling, because the excange between them is insanely substancial.

And their overall dynamic is so wholesome. There was a push and pull, a give and take, that made it fluid rather than static. Every single milestone felt organic and kept the audience thirsting for the next one.

Nothing felt forced or rushed. The slow burn was competently written to showcase their relationship being build on a very strong foundation, consistent in intimacy, mutual trust and acceptance — recurring themes for them and for the story — and so the stages of their bond had such a natural pace, it highlighted how genuine and healthy it was.

Consequently, there are so many aspects of their connection to explore. There's a never ending room for angst and for light hearted moments and you can adopt a more mature perspective or go for comical instead: they manage to be versatile without being generic and to embod the best clichés in fiction without becoming one themselves.

It's hard to think of a trope they couldn't pull off or an alternate universe that doesn't work for them. It gives the fandom plenty of freedom to be creative and to have the best time with it.

Plus, their chemistry was off charts. The romantic tension bleed through every single interaction. Their passion is so strong you could feel it even in scenes that had nothing to do with romance. And they didn't even need to kiss to achieve that level of synchrony.

They were also compatible. Inuyasha and Kagome balance each other quite nicely. Even in a relationship, they still keep their individualities and remain interesting both as characters and as a ship.

The very thing that dooms most pairings — opposite personalities — is precisely what keeps them together. Inuyasha and Kagome are completely different from each other, but they're actually extremely similar where it actually matters: their morals and goals.

And they longer they stay together, challenging one another, growing through trials and tribulations, inadvertently learning what each other's needs are and fulfilling them, easing each other's sorrows, covering each other's backs, saving each other's lives in every possible way, learning each other and learning with one another, the more their dichotomy turns into a duality, because they gain a more nuanced perspective of themselves, of each other and of the world.

It's a level of understanding, closeness and respect incredibly difficult to match. And for Inuyasha and Kagome, no one else even came close.

Another thing is that they're not just complementary to each other, but to the story itself. Their romance enhaces the overall plot. It has a structural placement in the wider narrative, strengthening its core themes and fulfilling the characters individual arcs, ultimately resulting in a more compelling journey.

So many romances are disposable to their own story, but Inukag was detrimental to theirs. Inuyasha and Kagome's interactions served as pivotal points of their respective arcs. Taking only the narrative into consideration, their relationship holds a lot of weight and greatly influenced everyone around it and it tied everything together.

That's why their happy ending felt so satisfying: it feels earned because everything went full cycle. All of that symbolism, all of those parallels paid off. Anything different from what we got would simply lack narrative and thematic cohesion.

And even if they didn't end up together, they could never be circumstancial. There was a real reason why they met, a reason why the fell in love and why they had ever lasting impacts on each other's lives regardless. It wasn't just love for love's sake.

This is what makes them, in my opinion, an epic ship.

BONUS: their soundtrack is lit and their quotes are simply legendary.

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Inuyasha: The Final Act, Episodes 21-26

At long last, we reach the end. Man, what a journey this show has been.

Keep reading