Myoga (InuYasha)

Infobox animanga character
name = Myoga
series = InuYasha


caption =
first = "Aristocratic Assassin, Sesshomaru"
last =
creator = Rumiko Takahashi
voiced by = Kenichi Ogata (Japanese)
Paul Dobson (English)
alias =
age =
species = yōkai-flea
born =
relatives =
aux1 name = Weapon
aux1 = Running away
Can suck up large quantities of poison from the blood stream of anyone who is affected by a poison. [InuYasha episode 107, "The First Time We Saw InuYasha's Tears" and InuYasha episode 13, "The Mystery of the New Moon and the Black-haired InuYasha" ]

nihongo|Myoga|冥加|Myōga is a fictional character in the anime and manga series "InuYasha" by Rumiko Takahashi. Myoga is Japanese for "invisible divine help".

Overview

Myōga is a yōkai-flea who appears randomly and gives the hanyō InuYasha information on current events, foes, and the shards of the Jewel of Four Souls ("Shikon No Tama" or Sacred Jewel). Myoga is an old friend of InuYasha's father, Inu no Taishou, and was originally charged with guarding InuYasha's father's tomb. But when Sesshomaru came to it in order to look for the Tetsusaiga he fled and met up with InuYasha and Kagome. When he is not with the group, he is usually off gathering new information that can be useful. Otherwise, he is with Tōtōsai. He has told InuYasha his blood tasted like his father's or "delicious". Once, he told Kagome that he had "never met someone who had such good taste and tasted so good".

Myōga often flees before or during a battle, which often annoys InuYasha and the rest of the group. It becomes something of a running gag among the group that if Myōga is around, they must not be in danger.

Later on, InuYasha encounter old lady Shoga ("Shōga"), Myōga's fiancé. Shoga controls the gang separately to catch Myoga as Myoga tries to run away from her. In the end, they were going to marry in the village that they were in, but Myoga flees and Shoga swears to find him, then marry him. (As a matter of trivia, Myōga's name is a homophone of myoga (Japanese wild ginger) while Shōga's name is the same as the Japanese word for domesticated ginger. It should be noted that these events only occur in the anime.

At the end of the series, he starts living with Totosai.

Powers and abilities

Myoga does not appear to have any significant offensive or defensive powers/abilities. Despite this, he seems to be almost indestructible, always coming back despite being crushed/slapped countless times. Sometimes he can control the animal on which he is riding.

He can use his natural blood-sucking abilities to filter poison from a person's blood and also weaken some spells, particularly those that prevent mobility. He is also capable of drinking so much blood that he swells to the size of a human child, and he can mix powerful herbal potions in his body. In episode 107, "The First Time We Saw InuYasha's Tears", Myoga sucked the poison from Kagome, Sango, and Miroku when they had been poisoned by Mukotsu, and ended up being the one to save their lives.

Notes and references