Sango

Sango was the only teenage female yōkai taijiya from her village. Before being destroyed, the village of demon slayers consisted of humans that had mastered the techniques of yōkai extermination and frequently helped others remove yōkai from their villages. She lived in the village with her younger brother and their father, the head of the village. Sango is a beautiful fair-skinned young woman with waist-length dark brown hair and brown eyes that are adorned with pink eye shadow. Her hair is usually tied loosely with a white ribbon or in a high ponytail with a red hair tie (depending on the outfit she wore), with bangs hanging on either side. She is stated to be pretty by many boys she encounters throughout the story. The only times she can be seen without eye shadow are in the flashbacks of her childhood and when she gave birth to Hisui. Because she grew up and worked as a demon slayer, Sango had a strong sense of responsibility along with a brave heart. Consequently, her personality wavered depending on her feelings. Although she was a compassionate person, she displayed a bit more of a no-nonsense attitude than Kagome. Sango took great pride in being a demon slayer. Being independent and tough by nature, she did not like people helping her. Sango relied on her advanced fighting skills, never letting an enemy escape once she had her sights on it. She fought aggressively and confronted every enemy bravely. She showed no mercy, and had a very strong sense of obligation towards fulfilling her duties. Sango's fighting will was very strong, and once a fire was lit under her, it was not easily doused. Even if, for example, she was seriously injured, she would continue to advance towards her enemy until she defeated it. She fearlessly battled enemies with no regard for her own life. This was seen when she thought Inuyasha had murdered her family and village; even though she was on the brink of death, she fought valiantly. Sango had great selfless love towards her younger brother Kohaku. She gave her cowardly brother Kohaku encouragement and continuously showed support towards her brother's decisions. Even when Kohaku was under the influence of Naraku, her unconditional love for him never wavered. She remained positive, believing that someday the real Kohaku would come back to her. In the end, despite going through many trials and errors, her hopes were realized. Sango's love for her brother was seen many times throughout the series. For example, she shielded him from being shot by arrows right after he killed her father and fellow slayers. It was also shown when Naraku attempted to manipulate her into killing her brother at his castle; she refused, loving her brother more than her own life. When Kohaku's Sacred Jewel shard was taken out, Sango was incredibly grief-stricken, sobbing for his loss. Consequently, she was extremely grateful when Kikyō saved her brother's life, despite once hating her. All of Sango's demon slayer comrades were killed, and her only relative, Kohaku, was under the control of Naraku. After all this tragedy, Sango was consumed with loneliness and despair, resolving to do everything alone and trusting no one. Thankfully, her sadness was healed by the gentleness and kindness of Kagome and her newfound friends. Sango developed a deep sense of fondness and gratitude towards her companions as time passed, because of how they stood by her (even when she betrayed them to save her brother), and gave her hope that Kohaku could still be saved. Since then, Sango's loyalty and devotion towards her closest friends was seen time and time again, feeling protective towards all of them. She finally felt a sense of happiness since the misery she had gone through because of Naraku. Sango thought each matter through calmly and grasped situations logically. Her words and actions were efficient and accurate, and she always came up with quick solutions. However, once she came to a certain conclusion, she would not doubt or rethink it. One of her faults was dashing into things recklessly. Sango showed great intelligence in battle. In addition to the knowledge of her ancestors, she had experience battling numerous demons. She knew how to dominate a battle by finding a demon's weak points based on their characteristics. Sango always felt love for her brother, responsibility as a sister, and feelings of guilt for her companions. She was usually calm, but when it came to Kohaku she could be distracted and was quick to become emotional. While Kohaku was under control of Naraku, these mixed feelings sometimes manifested themselves as rage towards his actions. Due to her various emotions concerning Kohaku, she had at one point decided to kill her brother and then herself so she could take responsibility for his actions. She couldn't bear to see Kohaku, her kind and fainthearted brother, kill innocent people because of Naraku's evil intentions, knowing that the real Kohaku would never be able to do such things, stating that it "would go against his very soul." She felt responsibility, a brutal love, and gentleness towards him as his sister. As time passed, Sango developed affection for and eventually fell in love with her companion Miroku. This was ironic, since she believed in pure love and held a great deal of disdain and disrespect towards perverts like the monk. Yet every time she saw him womanizing, she was consumed by jealousy and anger towards his shameless flirting. This was in part due to irritation towards herself for not being able to confess her feelings to him, resulting in a conflicted heart, as well as jealousy. One needs to remember that Sango was a teenager without any experience. Being unfamiliar with romance, Sango had trouble dealing with such love and affection towards and from another person, which proved to be a struggle throughout her relationship with Miroku. This goes for also having a black and white view of certain relationship complications, such as her rather bias anger towards Inuyasha over his love triangle situation with Kagome and Kikyō. In this way, she is similar to Kagome and her feelings towards Inuyasha save Inuyasha spends much of the series pretending he has no affection for Kagome while completely missing any affection Kagome shows him. Miroku, of course, interprets any attention as an invitation to blatantly sexual behavior. While Sango is young, she is no fool, and she does not wish to be what she believes will be just another sexual conquest. She is also interested in romance in her own way. In a famous scene where she became intoxicated she overtly flirted with Inuyasha. While this is played for comedy, the scene reveals some very important aspects. Miroku became very jealous. While Kagome rants as Sango tried to get Inuyasha to play with her a bit, Miroku did not approach Kagome. He remains upset and focused on Sango. In another scene, when Miroku tries to dismiss his continuous proposals as something he does to every girl he meets since he wishes to preserve his line, Sango irritably mumbles that he had never asked her. Surprised, Miroku immediately propositions her, to which Sango snaps, "Spare me, will you?!". The moment is played for comedy, but the scene reveals some of her feelings and perhaps insecurity. As "match-maker" Kagome lamented in a later scene, Miroku simply does not understand "mood" and does not know how to treat a woman he actually cares about. Thus in yet another scene, which Kagome watches hidden with Inuyasha, things seemed to go smoothly between Sango and Miroku. Kagome, who had previously enthusiastically daydreamed about a wedding between the two, eagerly announces that they had "confessed" their love. However, everytime Sango and Miroku almost goes into a romanatic moment Miroku places his hand on Sango's butt resulting in her violent response. Kagome could only lament that Miroku had no understanding. Their mutual affection becomes, then, an "open secret" for the rest of the gang who mainly blame Miroku for "hurting" Sango. For his part, Miroku occasionally revealed to them his irritation that they think he does not care for her. He surprised them with his flashes of jealousy and concerns that were clearly beyond simple physical attraction. Over the course of the series Sango moves from interest and jealousy to genuine love for Miroku. However, she remained furious with his behavior. Sango hated his lecherous aspects, often directed at herself and other women, since she believed that he was only physically attracted to her and showed little respect towards her as a person. To give an example, when he consoled her in one scene she was very happy until he took her positive response as license to, once again, rub her butt. She angrily wonders to herself why he could not at least start with her "shoulder" before inflicting painful vengeance. In other words, Sango had affection for Miroku, but she is frustrated that he moves too fast which will always suggest he sees her as an object rather than a person. In another scene, when they sit alone together and he behaves very maturely and respectfully, she takes the opportunity to start rubbing his butt. She explains she wanted to make sure it was him and not Shippō disguised as him. Thus throughout much of the series, Sango wonders about her feelings towards him, wonders if he actually likes her as oppose to viewing her as just another girl, and he seethes in jealousy whenever he, inevitably, "proposes" to yet another woman. When Miroku finally revealed his true feelings to her in a situation when he expected to die, she came to recognize his sincerity hidden beneath his behavior. In this way, she is like Kagome learning that Inuyasha actually cared for her, despite his attempts to hide it. When Miroku proposed marriage and a potential family life, repeating, very seriously, his trademark request that she bear his children, Sango tearfully accepted without hesitation, even agreeing to have as many as 10 to 20 children, although this was probably an exaggeration. This show her unselfish love for Miroku and her strong will to marry with him. That large amount of children may also serve to reinforce the fact that Sango has great maternal instincts as she show many times towards Kohaku as an older sister. She probably would bear as many children as Miroku wants from her, even without hesitation or complaining, showing how motherly she would be, and wife too.