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Hi!
I want to tell you that your website and the other one before this is amazing! The amount of stuff you have, episode info, simple amazing! Thank you very much! I would like to know, though, you write that an episode is canon or filler, though we all know episode 5 is canon, there are stuff there, and I don’t know if you read the manga, that are very different with Sesshoumaru, and other stuff as well. My question is how do you define an episode as canon, altered canon or filler? Is it something, at least with this series, that was said officially as how others defined it or did you read the manga and decided that the changes between the content in the manga and anime are minor enough to keep calling this canon ? Thanks in advance, Inuyasha Bandicoot!

Hi Loretta, thanks for bringing up the different cultural meanings of the ‘punk rock’ hand gestures. I’m actually quite puzzled as to the real meaning behind the gesture in the anime series myself, so it’s interesting to hear them. Hope you don’t mind, I’ve put up your interpretation on this page: http://www.cookiefax.com/index.php/inuyasha/article_mysticalhands

Just a note, from what I hear, Japan culture is partly influenced by Western culture, for example in terms of their music, their obsession with ‘katakana’, and fashion. However, like with all appropriation of cultures, there might be meanings lost in translation, and I wonder if this hand gesture is one of them.

But your interpretation of ‘god help me’ seems appropriate for most of the scenes though!

Thanks so much xL

I just wanted to all a little note about the “punk rock” hand symbol you have not4ed in several places on your site.  I come from a southern European family for which such a symbol was very familiar and was used for several different purposes.

It could at times mean “a man’s wife is unfaithful”, or “you are cursed with the Evil Eye”, or even as a good luck charm (here the thumb would be crossed over the 2 middle fingers or even held flat against the side of the hand).  One final meaning is the opposite of the “Evil Eye curse”.  It is to ward off the Evil Eye, or bad luck in general.  The were subtleties in the gesture that changed its meaning and, unfortunately, my grandparents who were well versed in the symbolisms, are long since dead. 

However, the culture in question here is that of Japan.  It seems by the way the hand gesture is used in the anime that it is intended to be a warding symbol to defend against bad luck or ill intentions from another person.  Kind of like a “god help me” wish. 

I doubt that any American Sign Language hand signals would be meaningful in Japan, especially 15th century Japan.  And these symbols do fit in with some of the other hand gestures that clerics, like Kikyo & Miroku make.

If so, this hand symbol would have been fairly universal across several cultures.

Hi Brittany,

The track should be High-Flying Sango:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf_OsW01UA0

Her main theme, Exterminator, Sango:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmTyyQbYXWU

Hope this is what you’re looking for!