Shippo

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This article is about Shippo, the fictional character. For the town located in Aichi Prefecture of Japan, see Shippo, Aichi.

Shippō 七宝

Alternate Name(s)	Shippoh, Shippou, Shippoo
Age	Appears 7
Race	Kitsune
Weapons	Fox Magic, Fox Fire.
First Appearance (Anime)	Enter Shippo... Plus, The Amazing Thunder Brothers!
Family Connections Father (deceased)

Shippo (七宝, Shippō^?) is a character in the anime and manga series InuYasha.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Name roots
2 About
3 Character relationships
4 Abilities
5 Trivia
6 Voice Actor

[edit] Name roots

'Shippō' means 'the seven treasures' (as in gold, silver, pearls, agate, crystal, coral, and lapis lazuli) in Japanese. (The English anime of InuYasha spells his name in a manner that ignores the double "o" - "Shippo" has a different meaning than "Shippō"). The similar-sounding 'shippo' (しっぽ) means 'tail', which is likely a deliberate pun.

[edit] About

He is a kitsune, a (yōkai-fox) who tags along with Kagome and InuYasha after they defeat the Thunder Brothers. At first, Shippo attacks InuYasha and Kagome in an effort to steal their shards of the Jewel of Four Souls (Shikon no Tama). He wants to use them to become stronger so he can avenge his father's death at the hands of the Thunder Brothers. After InuYasha and Kagome hear Shippo's story, they help him fulfill his revenge and he becomes the first new member of the group. Shippo, unlike some yōkai, has no problem with humans, but InuYasha and Shippo always tease each other while Kagome acts like a combination of mother and sister to Shippo. Though young and rather naïve, he has a very good grasp of the emotions and motives of his companions, and has oddly accurate moments of insight. He wishes very much that Kagome and InuYasha would not fight, and when they do, he is right there trying to convince InuYasha to apologize for whatever he did, resulting in a quick bop to the noggin for the kitsune.

As a kitsune, his specialty is trickery. He has fooled with InuYasha in particular on a few occasions, once abandoning him on the side of a road with his robe trapped beneath a stone with a sutra on it, which he is unable to touch, one act among several that have garnered InuYasha's mild resentment. Shippō's illusions aren't always complete and don't always last for very long, leaving Shippo to face trouble from the people or yōkai he may be trying to deceive.

[edit] Character relationships

[edit] Girls along the way

Shippo the fox meets a variety of young girls upon his travels. They are drawn to him due to his innocent sense of fun, his cuteness and tiny size, his sense of humour, and general pleasantness. Some of these include:

Souten, the younger sister of the Thunder Brothers. Shippo accepted her challenge to duel, thinking that she was a boy. Later, when she revealed her true gender, Shippo called off the battle and permitted her to keep his box of coloring crayons (which Souten had found extremely fascinating). After witnessing this act of chivalry on Shippo's part, Souten develops a crush on the kitsune. (anime only)
Satsuki, who he saved from a lizard yōkai who tricked her into believing that it was her brother. Shippo's "First Love."
Koume, a girl that mistakes Kirara for Kuroro (the village's twin tailed cat) and Shippo immediately develops a secret crush on her. He helps her look and find Kuroro. When Shippo and his friends leave the village, Inu Yasha starts to tease Shippo saying that Shippo was in love with her. Shippo becomes upset and Kagome "sit"s InuYasha.
Mitsuki, a girl who he was pressured into playing a trick on by a band of fox demons who idolized him. Mitsuki later became angry with Shippo and never wanted to see him again. (anime only)

[edit] Kirara

Shippo has a special relationship with Kirara, Sango's pet, and he is often found talking to her, particularly during battles in which their skills are not needed, and sometimes when Sango becomes immensely furious at Miroku they tend to cower in fear and hug until the display is over. They're both quite small, they are the only full demons of their group, and both specialize in fire techniques. These similarities lead to a strong sense of camaraderie, even if they are fox and cat. Some fans even suggest that they might have crushes on each other, though this is not proven.

[edit] InuYasha

Shippo focuses many of his tricks upon the main character. Also being a canine demon, he sees InuYasha in the role of an older brother. He values his strength, and emulates him, even asking to borrow his Tessaiga, and mimicking his 'Wind Scar' with his own 'Heart Scar'. Despite this, like any bratty younger brother, Shippo constantly torments InuYasha with practical jokes and thinly veiled insults. This often causes InuYasha to smack Shippo. While the two have a strong rivalry, when confronted by an enemy they both are willing to risk their lives to defend each other. Since InuYasha commonly talks to Miroku, Shippo occasionally gets confused about the Adult type of talk, and usually when he asks, they reply "I'll explain it to you when you're older".

[edit] Kagome and Sango

Kagome and Sango view Shippo like a younger brother since they also have/had one, and take on a rather motherly role. When InuYasha begins his assault, Kagome tells him "Sit, Boy!" punishing him for beating on the younger and weaker demon. InuYasha usually does not go easy on any male or demon of any age, especially if they've made him angry. Also many times Shippo's joined the girls in their separate travels (to stores etc.), and in the occasional bath. He regularly sleeps in Kagome's sleeping bag or on Kirara.

[edit] Miroku

Other characters have remarked that Shippo has been emulating Miroku's flirtatiousness with women (in Shippo's case, girls), and gained his natural charm (the only difference being the young demon having much more success than the older monk). Shippo has shown his affection for Miroku by crying when he was willing to kill himself to destroy Naraku. At times, he doesn't seem to realize that Miroku is doing less than moral things, but later catches on and is the most skeptical towards the monk's motivations. They usually get along and both like to avoid unnecessary conflict—especially if it means that they can get out of it alive.

[edit] Abilities

The anime version of Shippo

Kitsune Youjutsu (Fox Magic): An umbrella term for all his magical ability
Naki Kinoko (Weeping Mushrooms): Leaves a trail of wailing, crying mushrooms that can be followed to his current location.
Tsubushi Goma (Smashing Top): Illusionary magic using a small toy top that gives the appearance and presence of a very large top, often used to pin opponents to the ground.
Bunshin (Divide): Using special happa (leaves), creates many illusionary clones of Shippō that distract the enemy.
Kitsune-bi (狐火 Fox Fire): Summons a ghostly-looking blue fire. Used mostly for defense but works as an effective attack against weak yōkai.
Transformation: Deceives the enemy by transforming into another creature, person or object. These transformations are often incomplete, his untransformed tail usually gives him away, and the appearance usually can't be maintained for very long. He has transformed into Kagome at least four times (episodes 10, 20, 89 and once with Hachiemon in episode 135), Koga (episode 37) and a woman (episode 129), although his tail was visible in all the transformations. He is also able to transform to a pink balloon-like shape with limited flying ability to carry one light person like Kagome. Shippō has also transformed into a spider (episode 13) thinking that InuYasha was afraid of spiders. Near the beginning of the second movie, it is seen that he turns into a large duck-like creature carrying Kagome (who comments on the incomplete transformation in which his ribbon is visible in which Shippo replies, "Give it a rest") in order to confront Naraku. Also in the second movie, he turns into a bow for Kagome (at her request), but feels pain when she actually tried using him in battle. This originally occurred in episode 10 as Shippo's own idea sans pain (it was also oddly shaped: Kagome at first thought it was a snail!). This ability resembles the Transformation Technique from the Naruto series.
Kokoro no Kizu (Wound of the Heart, or lit. Wounded Heart) (Dub: Heart Scar): Shippo's answer to the Kaze no Kizu. He learned this new attack while fighting a lizard demon (episode 130). Shippō simply inflicts a painful but not deadly bite. This technique may release some of the yōkai's energy every time it strikes, as Shippo says that he saw the Kaze no Kizu.
Hidden Cloud: In episode 136, Shippo combines happa and a talisman given to him by the old woman exorcist (introduced in episode 85) to become invisible. Of course, like his other transformations, it doesn't last very long.

[edit] Trivia

Shippo often ends his sentences with "-ja", making him one of the few characters (possibly the only one) in the series with a unique style of speech, similar to how Naruto Uzumaki often ends his sentences with "dattebayo" or "(verb)-ttebayo". The "-ja" ending has no literal meaning, and cannot be translated. It's a peculiarity of the Japanese language where an ending is added with no meaning except that of making the general language tone sound more tough, or childish, girlish, or many other changes depending on the many existing endings. The closest English analogy would either be the suffix "y" used in Valley Girl speech, which transforms a verb into a noun, or the cliched "arr" attributed to seamen, which has no meaning except to make one's manner of speaking sound more tough. The "-ja" specific ending can be considered a colloquial verb ending that makes the speaker sound uncultured, brusque, and trying to seem tougher than they really are.
Shippo's transformations seem to be incorrectly identified. In movie 1, Shippo turned into a horse for Kaede, who was injured. She commanded, "Onward, Cow!" and Shippo replied, "I'm a horse!" In movie 2 InuYasha: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass of the subtitled version, when Shippo turns into a bird carrying Kagome, she exclaims, "Shippo, you're a pterodactyl!" Shippo then angrily answers, "I'm a seagull!" (in the English dub, she actually pokes fun at the bow he is still wearing in his hair). In the movie 4, Miroku falls off Kirara's back and nearly falls into the water before being saved by Shippo. He remarks after this, "I guess I owe you one Shippo, You make a great albatross, Shippo." Shippo remarks, "I'm a hawk!" and in the episode where the Thunder brothers battle InuYasha, Kagome needs for a bow and Shippo turns into an orange and furry bow, Kagome replies "I wanted a bow not a snail", and Shippo replies "I am a bow".
Shippo's balloon transformation is very similar to Oni, from Ranma ½
Like Kirara he also seems to have an unusual resistance to most poisons; even Naraku's Miasma doesn't effect him as much as the others.
In the episode where he tries to copy windscar, he easily lifts Tessaiga, whereas no full-fledged demon should be able to do so.