#like don't get me wrong the kikyo drama WAS interesting for the first ~200 chapters

[inukag]

Now that I think about it, I remember shojo anime of around Inuyasha’s time period having some focus on love triangles (Peach Girl, Fushigi Yûgi). I wouldn’t be surprised if Sunrise saw this and thought, hey Inuyasha may be shonen but we need to pull in the girls, let’s shove a love triangle in for the ratings. Which leads to the director to this day claiming the love triangle is what fans loved 🙄

Well I don't think it's fair to say that the anime added the love triangle. The situation between Inuyasha/Kagome/Kikyo was more nuanced in the manga, but it's still a situation where a guy has two girls who love him and he has to make a choice. For Inuyasha it was "dying with Kikyo or living with Kagome" and he constantly chose the latter so the ending was extremely obvious, but it still fits the criteria of a "love triangle" I think. Takahashi has been doing stories about Love Dodecahedron, past lovers, and the likes since the 70s/80s despite her works always being shonen/seinen.

But yeah for Sunrise and their changes that dumbed down the Inuyasha/Kagome/Kikyo situation it could have been influenced by so many things, we'll most likely never know. Fushigi Yugi is a harem right? I definitely think Sunrise was trying to make people doubt that Kagome and Inuyasha were going to be endgame. A fanbase being invested because they want their ship to win is definitely good for ratings! Too bad Sunrise doesn't realize now that Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship on its own is what made a lot of use love the series, not the prolonged drama with Kikyo 🥴