This article uses material from the “Koutarou Inugami” article on the Negima! Wiki at FANDOM and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Koutarou Inugami is a character from the Mahou Sensei Negima anime and manga.
Negi's best friend and rival ever since he got pummelled by him during the Kyoto Class Trip. In many ways, he's a textbook shonen action protagonist, and often contrasted to Negi, to whom he sometimes (futilely) tries teaching how to act like a brash and overconfident hero rather than a meek and polite Badass Bookworm. Kotarou is still in the 'girls have cooties' stage of development, though Chizuru and Natsumi become surrogate older sisters for him.
As he's Half-Dog Demon, he can change shape. Usually, he looks human, except for his ears and tail, but can transform into a giant wolf-like dog or something in between. He favors pure hand-to-hand combat, but also has the ability to control dog familiars and shadows.
In the AWA fics, Koutarou is a student at the AWA Academy.
Appearance[]
Because he's a hanyō, Koutaro had been gifted with wolf-like features such as a pair of furry-triangle wolf-ears perched on the top of his head and a black fluffed tail that jutted from the base of his spine with a white tip; he had large-spiked black hair that fell in front of his face and down the sides of his cheeks, with narrowed mud-brown eyes that were filled with confidence in his power and loyalty for those he considered family. Koutaro wore what could be considered as a school uniform as it had standard navy-blue pants that were held up by a thick-leather black belt around his waist, a simple plain T-shirt that he wore beneath a navy-blue jacket over it and finally a pair of blue-white sneakers on his feet.
Personality[]
Koutarou is a dog Hanyō, evidenced by his pointed ears and furry tail. Despite being hotheaded, Koutarou is a chivalrous person and would never hit a woman unless she was a truly powerful fighter - and even then is so uncomfortable about the idea he never uses his full strength. He has a strong dislike of Western-style magic, with Negi being one of the few exceptions.
Koutarou has a very lonely past, because being a hanyō has made him, from birth, an outcast of both human and dog-yōkai tribes. This makes him value both his friendship with Negi, and living with Chizuru and Natsumi, as they become the only true friends or family he's ever had.
Many aspects of Koutaro's character serve as foils to Negi's; more experienced fighters such as Kaede remark that Negi is in need of Koutaro's "straightforward" personality in a friend. He is energetic and outgoing, and likes to follow his gut rather than think through battles. He rarely places any doubt in his own ability, and plays down any failings he has in front of others. This is at a contrast to Negi, who is reserved, intellectual, plans his battles and plays down his successes. In this way Koutarou serves to show how atypical Negi is as a shōnen protagonist.
Though he is clearly not very "book smart" (unlike Negi) he is quite "street smart" and often understands/catches on to things that Negi does not. He does show good practical knowledge on strength, and has more battle history than Negi.
In Chapter 261 it's been revealed that after his match with Rakan he has an interest in becoming a Magister Magi.
Abilities[]
Koutarou is trained under the Garyū Inugami-ryū which is basically a self-taught school. Koutarou is an expert in ninjutsu and charms, and has the power to summon inugamis (dog spirits), which he can use as a ranged attack, to restrain foes, or to fly by forming them into wheels on his feet. But he must be careful as to use them, as sometimes they may come back right back at himself rather than his target. He prefers to fight hand to hand rather than using magic from a distance. Koutarou also has the ability to transform into a small black and white dog using a paper charm, or to a stronger part/half/full beast form. He claim that most of his fighting technique (including the use of ki power) was made up by himself. His capability to correctly analyze Negi's technique supports his ability to achieve such a task. He can transform into a Humaniod Beast Form and a full beast form in which he takes the apperance of a black wolf, which he calls "Kuon Eisou". He also has limited powers of shadows as he was able to move between shadows to save Haruna, Nodaka and Chisame and escape with them as shown in chapter 227.
- Shundo (Instant Movement)
- Kage Bunshin - A technique taught to him by Kaede it allows him to make multiple shadow clones of himself.
- Inugami-ryuu Kuuga - A long distance attack used by Koutarou against Wilhelm. The attack shoots a blast of ki from a distance in the form of a fang.
- Kuon Bakusai Ken - Koutarou focuses a massive amount of his dog spirits into his hand to release a highly destructive burst-like punch. This technique is able to rival Negi's Oukahouken and Raika Houken.
- Shikkuu Kokurouga - Koutarou fires a large amount of power dog spirts off at high speed to attack his enemies.
- Kuzoku Juuka - In this Form he invokes his beast powers. Though still looking human he gains a beast like apperance. All of his abilities are greatly increased while in this form.
- Partial Body Transformation - Koutarou can transform parts of his part into beast form. He usually does this for his hands to increase their power.
- Kuon Eisou - Quite possibly Koutaro's strongest form. In this form he completely transforms into a beast, fully transforming into a black dog.
Trivia[]
- In the AWA fics, Koutarou develop an unlikely friendship with Dan Mandel and is "badly" influenced by the jerk.
- As stated above Kotarou does not appear in either anime series. The Kyoto arc, where he is supposed to appear, is depicted in the first anime series as a drastically shortened one because of lack of material at the time of production; while Negima!? follows a different storyline and presents different circumstances regarding Konoka and Setsuna, therefore preventing a Kyoto arc-like scenario (although he appears twice in the Summer OVA, first in a group picture from the manga of some of the contestants of the MahoraFest Tournament that is shown during the opening credits, and at the end, when his face is on a fan Chizuru is holding, he is not actually present). However, Kotarou make appearances in Negima!? Neo from chapter 16 onward.
- Kotaro's concept and characterization are possibly driven from the title character of InuYasha, as Ken Akamatsu admits to be a fan of that series -- Kotarou shares Inuyasha's rough language, bluntness, and body language, both are dog hanyō and his Beast form also bears a minor resemblance. When Asuna witnessed Kotaro's transformation for the first time, she mentioned about seeing it before in some manga, or, in the English manga, claims that he was in the wrong manga.
- In Chapter 339 when Kotaro saved Madoka from the bullies, he called them "Level 5 small fry". This is most likely a reference with Farmer with a Shotgun from Dragon Ball Z where he is referred it by Raditz.
Gallery[]
