Kagome/Sesshomaru

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Pairing
Pairing: Kagome Higurashi/Sesshomaru
Alternative name(s): SessKag, Sesshome
Gender category: Het
Fandom: InuYasha
Canonical?: non-canon
Prevalence: common
Archives: Dokuga.com, A Single Spark
Other:
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Kagome/Sesshomaru is a het non-canon pairing in InuYasha fandom. The commonly used shipname is SessKag. It is the most popular non-canon pairing in the InuYasha fandom.

Canon

Kagome and Sesshomaru do not interact much in the canon.

Kagome's canonical love interest is Inuyasha, Sesshomaru's younger half-brother. In canon, Sesshomaru's relationship to Inuyasha and his companions is antagonistic, although they are united against a common enemy in the end. When Sesshomaru and Kagome first meet, he tries to kill her. Later on, during the Shichinintai-arc he ends up saving Kagome from Mukotsu. He also saves and protects Kagome during the final battle against Naraku. This is one of the significant canon interactions Sesshomaru and Kagome have, as they are alone together in these moments.

Sesshomaru as a whole mostly sticks to himself in the canon and has very few love interests who could be considered canonical.

Fandom

Despite how little canon interaction there is between Kagome and Sesshomaru, it is a very popular pairing in the InuYasha fandom. This is something that other InuYasha fans sometimes wonder about, e.g. Why do so many people ship SessKag thread on Reddit.

Reasons why people ship Kagome and Sesshomaru vary a lot. The pairing fits both the Enemies to Lovers and Opposites Attract (trope) tropes that appeal to a lot of fans. Many SessKag shippers like to explore the dynamic of a relationship between two such different characters. Many feel that a relationship between Kagome and Sesshomaru would require further character development for both of them, which fan works allows these shippers to explore in detail that the canon lacks. Because it is a non-canon pairing, it also gives freedom for the fans and creators to develop Sesshomaru's and Kagome's romantic relationship in its entirety, which may add to SessKag's appeal to some of the fans. Creating a believable romance between the two can also be a welcome challenge, due to how sparse their canon interactions are. Sesshomaru is also probably the most popular character in InuYasha, and many fans prefer him to Inuyasha. For these fans, Kagome may serve as someone they can project their own feelings to.

Fan works, and fan fiction especially, is a big reason why the pairing is as popular as it is. There are many fans of the Kagome/Sesshomaru pairing who discovered the ship not from the canon but through fan fiction.

The SessKag Fandom was particularly active from mid-2000s to mid-2010s, coinciding with the time that InuYasha anime was being aired in the United States. Even though the anime and the manga have long since ended, the fandom is still popular and active and has been attracting some newer fans as well.

On 20th July 2021, there were 1,572 works on AO3 tagged as Kagome/Sesshomaru. Of them, Kagome/Sesshoumaru was tagged as the only pairing in 1,075 works. On Dokuga, there were 7,754 stories on the same date. As Kagome/Sesshomaru is an older fandom, there is still significantly more fanwork of it posted on FFN than AO3.


Fan Communities

The SessKag Fandom has for a long time had its own community. The Kagome/Sesshomaru fansite A Single Spark was founded in 2001. It served as an archive for both fan fiction and fan art and even hosted annual fandom awards. A Single Spark was closed in 2008 but the fan fiction posted there was archived and saved and are still to this day hosted on the Kagome/Sesshomaru fansite Dokuga.com, founded in 2008 to replace A Single Spark.

Dokuga hosts fan fiction and fan art. It also has a forum and used to have a chat room, to further the sense of community. Dokuga also used to host Dokuga Awards from 2008 to 2013. Initially, the Awards were quarterly. Later, that switched to semi-annual, before the Awards ended completely due to the responsible admin's time constraints.

Nowadays, SessKag has active communities also on discord, where there are two servers dedicated to the pairing. The larger of these has over 200 members. The SessKag fandom is also active on Tumblr where there have been many events hosted, such as the annual SessKag Week. The SessKag Blog at Tumblr has over 3,500 followers.


Fandom Events


Notable Fanworks

Fics

  • Tales from the House of the Moon by Resmiranda, Mature, Kagome, now in college, discovers the tale of Sesshomaru and Rin. Grief can be a prison, but the bonds of love are not easily broken. What is the truth behind fairytales?
  • A Simple Legacy by elle6778, Teen, Inuyasha's erratic youkai transformations forced Kagome to seek help from Sesshomaru in more ways than one. Unsurprisingly, the taiyoukai balked at the idea... until Kagome offered him something in exchange for his help. (Part II & Part III)
  • Transgressions by wonderbug, Explicit, With her friends' lives hanging in the balance, Kagome agrees to Sesshoumaru's demands and sets about righting a wrong she committed on the day they first met. But her crimes against the demon lord run far deeper than she knows, and his dark obsession is only the beginning... (slow burn)
  • Dancing With Scissors by piratequeen0405, Excplicit, "Kagome’s niece is left orphaned by a tragic car wreck, leaving Kagome to raise her alone. Or so she thought…help comes from an unexpected source, Sesshoumaru."
  • Frivolous Sentimentalities by Tally Mark, General Audiences, "If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, what galaxy are youkai from? Because Kagome would really like to know. SessKag oneshot."
  • The Once and Future Taiyoukai by RosieB, Teen, "The well was supposed to be stable. It was supposed to send her to Inuyasha. And it failed. Now, Kagome’s even farther into the past and she must depend on a young Sesshoumaru, who has no idea of what their shared future holds. But neither does Kagome."
  • Unspoiled by forthright, Teen, "Something goes awry during a trip through the Well, and Kagome is stranded in the distant past where she encounters a familiar face. When a very young Sesshoumaru decides to keep her, the consequences ripple through time."
  • She Who The Prophecy Foretold by Sunset Miko, Mature, "Sesshoumaru needs the help of a miko, and only one will do. His request for aid sets in motion an ancient prophecy, leading them all on an unexpected quest. Secrets kept for years finally are told, and an unsuspecting Kagome is thrust into a mission with a whole new set of tasks and troubles. She is the priestess spoken of in the prophecy and her strange life is turned upside down."

Arts


Doujinshi


Recs


Archives and Communities

External Links


Resources

References

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