Band of Seven

The , is a short, and wide poison master, and the third Shichi'nintai that InuYasha and his companions meet. He abducts Kagome and, in the anime, tries to have a bizarre wedding ceremony with her but becomes angry at her due to her reaction to his facial features, and tries to kill her when she tries to remove his Shikon Shard. However, in the manga, Mukotsu tries to come onto Kagome until she stabs him in the with what looks like a fire poker, that point on he tries to kill Kagome, then Miroku and Sango appear. Mukotsu poisons Kagome, Miroku, and Sango, nearly killing them, but was soon killed by Sesshomaru, on whom his poisons have no effect.

He uses a variety of poisons and acids kept in wooden tubes to both attack and weaken his targets and protect himself. He can even blow small clouds of toxic smoke from his mouth.

The marks on his face mean Poison. He is the sixth strongest member of the seven. His appearance and clothing are somewhat similar to Genma Saotome, the father of the main protaganist from Ranma 1/2.

Ginkotsu

is the second in command and one of the more intelligent members of the Shichi'nintai. He respects his leader just as much as any other member of the Shichi'nintai. However, with the corrupt power of the shard of the Shikon Jewel embedded in his neck, and being forced to give up any extra Jewel Shards to Bankotsu, he starts to feel hatred and jealousy towards his leader and vows never to die again because of him by any means necessary. To do this, he requires possession of all the Shikon Shards Naraku gave them.

Renkotsu is first of the Shichi'nintai to find out some truth about Naraku and reasons that Naraku is not to be trusted. He finally comes to the point where he believes he is better than the others and eventually becomes a little overconfident. After taking Jakotsu's shard (who was defeated by InuYasha) and killing him, Renkotsu tries to kill Bankotsu, who has found out about Jakotsu after an insect brought him Jakotsu's hairpin. He fails, and Bankotsu takes Renkotsu's jewel shards, killing him, and leaving Bankotsu the last of the Shichi'nintai. In the anime he actually lived just a little longer than in the manga, being told to fight first by Bankotsu before he was killed by him.

He is an expert with explosives and metallurgy who used bombs, cannons, and other artillery; created fire from his mouth by drinking a liquid (oil) from a calabash bottle and alternatively from what seems to be a crude form of flamethrower; set wires hooked onto his hands on fire, thus pulling his victims into a net of fire. He was also a gifted strategist, and possessed some skill at hand to hand combat although the only member of the group he surpassed in fighting skills was Mukotsu. He was also skilled at mechanical work, to the point of being able to reconstruct Ginkotsu into a living artillery weapon resembling a modern tank, giving the series a anachronistic look. His only weakness is the fact that he needs to carry around his contraptions which could affect his mobility.

The marks on his face mean Deception. This could be related to his apparent ability to make his markings disappear in order to deceive InuYasha into trusting him to be alone with the poisoned and unconscious Kagome, Miroku, and Sango. This may also relate to how he sought to betray Bankotsu.

He is the fourth strongest member of the seven, and the most intellegent one.

He is placed second-in-command, despite being physically weaker than Jakotsu, who is third-in-command. At the time of his first death, he was 24 years old.

Suikotsu

. Banryū is described in the anime as a halberd, when it actually resembles a huge double edged broadsword. The following is a list of its attacks:;. The hatred built inside the halberd combined with the power of the 4 shikon shards inside Banryu creates a huge and powerful ball of swirling anger and fire. However, this all-powerful attack is his downfall: InuYasha uses the Bakuryūha to shatter the Banryū and then the Hatred Ball consumes Bankotsu. He only uses this attack in Episode 122 of the anime: "The Power of Banryū! Duel to the Death on Mt. Hakurei".

;: Aura waves produced by the sacred shards embedded within Banryū. In episode 112 it was blue, in 113 it was pink, and in 122 it is red, fueled by emotions, thus much more powerful.

The marking on his forehead represents Youth. He is the leader, and the strongest member of the seven. At the time of his first death, he was 17 years old making him the youngest member of the Band, though most of the Band refers to him as "Big Brother".

His black hair in a single braid may be a reference to Ranma Saotome; the main protagonist of Takahashi's previous series: Ranma 1/2.

Notes and references