Volume 8

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The Inuyasha Narrative, Part 8: Koga, The Character Pushing Inuyasha Into Action
	Translation provided by: Robby Stine of Kanabits

Koga Started Out More Villainous

At first, I thought of Koga as more of a cowardly bad guy, but as I continued writing, he actually turned out to be pretty decent. When we first meet him you might say he’s a bit wild. I mean, we see him rip off the head of a comrade who had betrayed him. It’s the kind of terrible thing we expect from a demon. Atrocious by human standards, but I don’t think demons see it as such. They’re just behaving as demons do.

Koga is fast on his feet, and that is because I wanted to give him a different role than Inuyasha. Inuyasha is a character excelling in physical strength, swinging around a massive sword, so I thought it would be a good idea to introduce a character excelling in speed. Honestly, assigning character traits is a struggle. You consider what strengths you haven’t used yet, and assign those to new characters so everyone ends up with a parameter they excel at.

I didn’t think Koga would work alone, as wolves tend to live in packs, so I created the Demon Wolf Tribe for him. And of course, when we first meet him, we watch him rip to shreds a comrade who betrayed him, and rather than him doing that do a human, I thought having the encounter be between two demons would make the scene less gruesome.

Someone With the Courage to Run Away

I created Koga’s personality largely to exist in contrast with Inuyasha’s. I wanted to be able to have situations where Inuyasha might panic and Koga would not. His falling for Kagome happened naturally. It just seemed like the best thing to do.

Another characteristic of his is that when it comes time to retreat, he will. Having a character who will run away without hesitation felt fresh for me. He isn’t a coward or anything, he just knows when retreating is the best course of action. He’s someone with the courage to run away, and I was able to use that trait better than I expected. The other characters in Inuyasha can get themselves into pretty sticky situations, digging their own graves at times.

The Role Koga Fulfills

In the grand scheme of things, Koga was never a catalyst for directly moving the story forward. However, through their interactions, he was able to push Inuyasha into action during key moments, and that was an important role he did fulfill.

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