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Home | The Hero21 Homepage | Fanstuff Homepage | Inuyasha Fanfiction | Inuyasha Fanart | Hero21 Fanfiction (Fanfic Challenges) | Hero21 Fanart | IY Fanguild Winners | Diversions | The Hero in the 21st Century Comic | Hero21 Color Gallery | Guestbook: Sign / Read | Mailing List | Hero21 Text Scripts | Author's Notes | The Hero Team | Contact Us Note: The entire Hero21 site contains material intended for mature audiences (upper teens and older). Much of The Hero in the 21st Century comic, as well as many of the pictures and stories presented or linked on these pages, might be considered inappropriate for younger readers. Warnings are included for especially intense content, but reader and parental discretion is advised. |
Ah-Un, Ah-Uhn, Ah and Un |
Sesshoumaru's two-headed dragon thing. The name's a joke—many Shinto shrines, for example, have pairs of statues, one with the mouth opened as if to say "ah," the other as if to say "un." Both "ah" and "un" are used to mean "yeah" or "uh-huh" in Japanese. In the anime, Higurashi shrine has a pair of these statues. |
Air rip |
Chris Rijk's term
for the black hole in Miroku's right hand.
|
Blades of Blood |
see Hijin
Ketsusou
|
Boomerang bone |
see Hiraikotsu
|
-chan |
Affectionate suffix added to given names of children or loved ones (rather like adding "-y" in English, such as "Johnny" for "John"). Teenaged girls often use this for their female friends, as well; Kagome and Sango call each other "Kagome-chan" and "Sango-chan". |
Claws of Blood |
See Hijin
Ketsusou
|
Claws of Exorcism |
see Sankon
Tessou
|
Demon Begone! |
see Sankon
Tessou
|
Fang, The |
Often used in the English translations to refer to the Tessaiga/Tetsusaiga. |
Four Soul Jewel |
see Shikon no Tama |
Hanyou |
"Half-demon"
(Actually, a better translation is "half magic." You with me,
Edward Eager
fans?) What Inuyasha is: half youkai, half human.
|
Hellhole |
see Void |
Higurashi |
Kagome's family name.
In the Japanese version of Inuyasha, this is the only name Houjou-kun
ever uses for Kagome. It's also the name of the shrine where she lives,
and translates as "sunset" or "evening."
|
Hijin Ketsusou (Airborne Blade Blood Claw) |
Inuyasha's attack
that uses his own blood to form flying blades.
|
Hiraikotsu |
Sango's giant boomerang
weapon, made of the bone of an exterminated youkai.
|
Hojo-kun, Hojou-kun, Houjo-kun, Houjou-kun |
The
boy in Kagome's school who keeps trying to date Kagome. "Hojo"
is his family name (Japanese boys older than elementary school age follow
the traditional English custom of calling one another by family name,
rather than given name). "-kun" is a title used to address people
(almost always boys) at one's own level. Beyond adolescence, the polite
"-san" is usually used instead of "-kun". Like Kagome
in The Hero in the 21st Century, we've
never heard his given name, although
some of us have theories.
|
houshi, houshi-sama |
A term used for a
certain type of Buddhist monk (Miroku, for example). As of Chapter 318
of the manga (Vol 32 no 10), Sango has never called Miroku anything other
than "Houshi-sama."
|
Inu no taisho |
Leader of the dogs. A term used in the manga and Japanese version of the anime to refer to the father of Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, who is never named. |
Inutaisho |
Cat
Who first gave this name to Inuyasha's unnamed father, and all the
rest of us have borrowed it since then, many of us with her gracious permission.
Thanks, Cat, you're terrific.
|
Inuyasha, Inuyasya, Inu-Yasha, InuYasha, Inuyaksa |
Dog-boy. Star of
the show. All of these are pronounced the same way. I think "Inuyasya"
sounds the closest to the Japanese pronunciation.
|
inuyoukai |
Dog-demon, like Inuyasha's
father.
|
Iron
Reaver, Soul Stealer
|
see Sankon
Tessou
|
Jaken |
Sesshoumaru's youkai retainer. We've never been told exactly what sort of creature he is, but most of us call him a toad-demon. |
Jewel of Four Souls |
see Shikon no Tama |
Jii-chan |
"Grandpa."
What Kagome calls her grandfather.
|
Kaede |
elderly priestess,
sister of Kikyou and one of the companions.
|
Kagome |
Really, it's pronounced
"Kah-go-meh," three equal syllables (I'd say a slight accent
on "Kah"), not "Kuh-go-mee".
|
Kikyou, Kikyo |
Pronounced "Kee-kyoh,
" with a long O sound. The priestess (miko) who shot Inuyasha, and
then some.
|
kitsune |
Pronounced "kit-soo-neh."
A fox spirit.
|
Kohaku |
Little brother of
Sango. Pathetic freckles—if Dickens had been drawing comics, Little Nell
would have had them, and so would Dora Copperfield.
|
Koinu |
Pronounced "Koh-ee-noo." Japanese for "puppy" (literally, "child-dog"). In The Hero in the 21st Century, Houjou-kun's given name is Inuyasha, but his family members and childhood friends call him by the nickname Koinu. |
Kouga, Koga |
Wolf-youkai
who loves Kagome.
|
Mama |
Kagome actually calls
her mother Mama, not, for example, Okaa-san.
|
miko |
Sometimes translated
as "priestess," which isn't really accurate. A miko is
a virgin girl associated with a Shinto shrine. Nowadays, it's the equivalent
of altar boys and girls in the Catholic church, or acolytes in many Protestant
churches. At one time, the miko was, apparently, perceived as having
more power. In Inuyasha, the miko has special magical/spiritual
powers.
|
Miroku |
Buddhist monk (houshi),
companion of Inuyasha and Kagome, has a black hole ("void",
"air rip", "hellhole") in his right hand.
|
Musashi domain |
The area of Japan
where the well is located, now part of Tokyo.
|
Myouga, Myoga |
The flea demon, Inuyasha's
personal servant.
|
Naraku |
The Bad Guy. The
name means "Hell" or "Abyss," or, as Babelfish amusingly
translates it, "Basement."
|
osuwari |
"Sit"—the
command Kagome uses to nullify Inuyasha's power and send him crashing
to the ground. Translated for the anime as "Sit, Boy." Osuwari
is only used to tell a dog to sit, and is not the same word used to talk
about a person sitting. (So when fanfic writers have Kagome saying "Let's
sit down" and Inuyasha crashing to the ground, they're wrong. Not
the same word.)
|
Rin |
Pronounced "Reen" (but the English anime uses the English short-i, like it looks). Human girl who becomes one of Sesshoumaru's companions. |
Sacred Jewel |
see Shikon no Tama |
-sama |
An old title of high
respect, no longer used in Japan (modified to, and replaced by, "-san").
Viz translates, for example, "Kagome-sama" as "Lady Kagome."
|
-san |
Modern-day honorific, used with the family name as we would use "Mr." or "Ms." So, for example, Kagome's friends might refer to her mother as "Higurashi-san." Older adolescent or adult friends are sometimes called by their given name followed by -san. When I worked in the American branch of a Japanese corporation, Japanese managers were called, for example, "Mr. Adachi" or "Adachi-san," as in Japan, but American managers were called by their given names, American style, so my boss was "Peggy" to the American employees and "Peggy-san" to the Japanese. |
Sango |
Demon exterminator,
one of the companions.
|
Sankon Tessou (Soul Scattering Iron Claw) |
Inuyasha's attack
using his claws. Translated for the anime as "Iron Reaver,Soul Stealer."
Originally translated in the English manga as "Demon Begone!"
and later as "Claws of Exorcism".
|
Sankon Tetsusou |
see Sankon
Tessou
|
Sesshoumaru, Sesshomaru |
Inuyasha's youkai
half-brother.
|
Shikon no Tama |
Literally, The Jewel of Four Souls or Four-Soul Jewel. Powerful jewel guarded by Kikyou and shattered by Kagome's arrow. Inuyasha wanted to use the jewel to become fully youkai, but at one point planned to use it to become human. Called "Sacred Jewel" in the English-language anime. My understanding is that the name is a pun in Japanese, that shikon no tama sounds very much like the Japanese term for "space/time" (referring, of course, to the well's disruption of the space/time continuum). |
Shippou, Shippo |
The kitsune (fox-spirit)
child companion of Inuyasha and Kagome.
|
"sit" |
see osuwari.
|
"sit, boy" |
see osuwari.
|
Souta, Sota |
Kagome's little brother.
|
taijiya |
Demon exterminator.
Sango, for one.
|
Tenseiga |
Sesshoumaru's
life-restoring sword.
|
Tessaiga |
Inuyasha's sword.
Viz calls it "The Iron Cleaving Fang" or "The Fang"—the
translated name
|
Tetsusaiga |
One way of writing
the name of Inuyasha's sword—but it's pronounced "Tessaiga."
The English-language anime uses this spelling, and the pronunciation "Tetsaiga."
|
Toukijin |
Pronounced "Toh-kee-jeen." Sesshoumaru's evil sword, the one made from the fang of Naraku's offshoot, Goshinki. |
Toutousai, Totosai |
Youkai swordsmith who forged Tenseiga and Tessaiga. |
Void |
Black hole in Miroku's
right hand.
|
youkai |
"Demon",
like Shippou, Sesshoumaru, Kouga, Inuyasha's father, etc. "Demon"
is the translation Viz uses, but it's not a good translation. It has nothing
to do with anything like the Christian hell, or with absolute evil. Youkai
are magical creatures. The category seems to include what we in the west
would call elves, fairies, trolls, goblins, ghosts, and totems.
|