The priestess Kikyo has always been my favorite character since I first watched "Inuyasha." Powerful yet very compassionate, she deserved a happy ending, but instead lived a lonely life and had a terrible fate. Though she did not appear much in the story, Kikyo was the cause of everything, and played a major role in the main plot.

Kikyo was a powerful Shinto priestess who had the ability to purify demons by her sacred arrows. She was entrusted to purify the Jewel of Four Souls and guard it against evil forces. Inside the Jewel, good and evil battled each other for eternity, so it could be tainted by demons who had a thirst for its power. Kikyo was the only one who could do the task because of not only her spiritual power but also her pure soul. To do so, she must detach herself from the mundane life and disregard her desires as an ordinary woman. Once she fell in love, her spiritual power would diminish and the demons could take advantage of it. That was the reason why Kikyo led a lonely life and never found true happiness.

But Kikyo could never control her heart; after all, she was still a human. When she met Inuyasha, she could not help but fall in love with him. A half-man, half-demon, Inuyasha was scorned and shunned by both the demon world and the human villagers. Both he and Kikyo could not find their place in this world, so they sympathized with each other and eventually developed a mutual affection. For the first time in her life, Kikyo could experience happiness, but that was just an ephemeral bliss. As she fell in love, her spiritual ability dwindled and she started to lose to the demons. Confident and proud as she was, she started to worry about the Jewel, but at the same time could not give up the happiness she just found.

Then Kikyo came up with an idea to solve her problems: she could use the Jewel to make Inuyasha fully human, which would purify it permanently and free Kikyo of her responsibilities as a priestess. However, a cruel twist of fate severed this hope. Naraku, a creature born from a man's demonic love for Kikyo, made Inuyasha and Kikyo misunderstand to think that they betrayed each other. Heartbroken and mortally wounded, Kikyo sealed Inuyasha onto the Tree of Life and took the Jewel with her into death. She believed that by doing so, she could keep it from turning evil and fulfill her duty as its guardian. Kikyo could have killed Inuyasha instead of sealing him, had it not been for her love. So did Inuyasha: his last words before falling into the eternal slumber was her name, and he declared that he still loved her, no matter what.

Even in death, Kikyo could not find peace. The Jewel granted its bearer her deepest desire even unknown to her. It was not to rest, but to see Inuyasha again. Kikyo was resurrected only to see Inuyasha being with her own reincarnation, Kagome. After all she had sacrificed, Kikyo received nothing more than a false existence, living upon the souls of the dead. She understood that she belonged to the underworld, and that the string of fate could not be rejoined since it had already been broken. She could only be a bystander, watching Kagome live her life since she could not return to Inuyasha. She felt bitter that she had been cut off from the flow of time and could never fully join the living again. Once again, Kikyo buried her feelings and resumed the role of a priestess, determined to help Inuyasha’s group destroy Naraku and purify the Jewel once and for all. It was as if she was still the Kikyo of the old days, beautiful, pure, respected by all. But she was still a dead soul, and she was even sadder, colder and lonelier than before.

Kikyo's second death is one of the saddest and most beautiful scenes I have ever watched in anime. Finally, Kikyo could find her peace. In both of her lives she never lived for herself, but now she could finally become an ordinary woman, dying in the arms of whom she loved. She could spend her last moments reliving her happy days with Inuyasha, share with him a final kiss, and watch him cry for the first time ever. Perhaps this was the best ending for Kikyo: returning from death to learn that Inuyasha always loved her and then died again in his loving embrace. Kikyo had been suffering for all of her tragic lives, and now finally she could leave behind all burdens and go in peace. After all, that was what Kikyo had always wished for. She had wished to see Inuyasha again, to be loved by him again, to retreat from the battle and to rest peacefully as an ordinary woman. All those wishes were granted, and her soul ascended to the faraway sky full of twinkling stars.