Character · Inuyasha
Shippo
The smallest member of the party is a fox demon child who fights mainly by producing an alarming amount of nothing.
In Otakana the clue reads: Small fox demon child with a leaf trick
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Inuyasha
- Letters
- 6 · Normal
Shippo's father was killed by the Thunder Brothers, and his first appearance is an attempt to steal jewel shards and avenge him, which goes about as well as a small fox demon should expect. He attaches himself to Kagome afterwards and stays. Most of his role is to be the child in a group of teenagers and adults who keep forgetting that he is one.
Fox magic is illusion. He throws leaves that turn into copies of himself, transforms into objects with a puff of smoke and a tail that refuses to disappear, and spins a toy top up to the size of a boulder. Almost none of it works on anything dangerous. What it does reliably do is annoy Inuyasha, who responds by grinding a fist into his skull while Kagome watches.
He is also the emotional register of the group. Shippo says out loud what the others are too proud to admit, cries when something is genuinely awful, and gets comforted by a girl with homework due on Monday. Rumiko Takahashi uses him to keep a long, grim revenge plot from turning completely humourless, which is a lot of work for a character who fits in a rucksack.
Spelling SHIPPO
SHIPPO has two traps stacked on top of each other. The doubled P comes from the small tsu in the Japanese, 七宝, and the final vowel is long, so a careful romanisation gives Shippou and neither the U nor a macron will fit. Six letters, one P pair, no U. The kanji means seven treasures and also names a style of cloisonne enamel.