Kagome HIGURASHI

Kagome higurashi can use an arrow 

Why so much hate? I love her. 

she is such a damsel in distress but i cant help but love her

the only reason for that is that inuyasha is the first anime i ever watched and she was the first anime girl i ever knew

so she brings me nostalgia

A great character, despite the hate. Most reasons given are easily dismissable:

• "Mary sue" -- She has marked weaknesses and flaws shown throughout the series. This is not in line with the definition of a mary sue.
• "She stole Inuyasha from Kikyo" -- Kagome didn't break up a relationship, let alone a happy romance. Additionally, the attraction between Kagome and Inuyasha took root before Kikyo was even revived. She was understanding while also understandably hurt by Inuyasha regarding Kikyo. Who Inuyasha chooses is on Inuyasha. Kikyo was given the short end of the stick in life and death, but Kagome also suffered upheaval. Blaming Kagome for the continued tragedy of Kikyo is nonsensical. 
• "She yells at Inuyasha." -- Inuyasha yells at her constantly, calls her names constantly, is jealous of her showing affection to anything male, and jerks her around re: Kikyo. She has reason to yell.
• "Kikyo was more mature, stronger, etc." -- Kikyo was raised to be a powerful miko (died at 18) under the weight of responsiblity, Kagome is a 15 year old modern school-girl. She chose to sacrifice her normal life to do what was, in her mind, right. That's maturity and strength. Further, Kikyo didn't like herself or her life. Her stoic facade was a facade (as we can see in the first 5 volumes where she indicated to Inuyasha that she's unhappy with the stoic and strong act she must put on to do her job, and with the jewel gone she can live as an ordinary woman.) A primary difference between the two is that Kagome remained herself. That gave her more peace, while Kikyo was tormented even before she died.

Individual preference is fine -- it's fine to dislike a character simply because they grate on your nerves. These reasons given are bunk, and a poor attempt at framing a character negatively when the reason often is she just grates on some people.

I like the character because:

• Her personality is incredibly ordinary. She works to maintain that ordinary-ness (attempting to hold onto the normalcy of school through homework even though she chooses to be absent by remaining in the feudal era), while trying to do the right thing, despite what circumstance has thrown at her.
• She's a forgiving, kind character who is quick to make friends. Despite the trauma she endures and is not at all prepped for, being raised in modern Japan, she keeps her humanity and proves to be incredibly resilient.
• She's a mixture of maturity and immaturity. She has a temper, yells a lot, and makes some side-ways decisions (bear in mind she's still a 15-year old modern school girl so that's unsurprising) but is also incredibly conscientous, hard working and ultimately considerate of other people.

That's what I ultimately truly like about the character -- she's special through her soul, her powers, but her personality is incredibly normal, as is her upbringing. She wasn't raised to be a special... anything. She wasn't raised to be a miko. She wasn't raised in a land of demons and humans. She wasn't raised with her mortality in her face on a nearly daily basis. Despite those things, she rises to the occasion.

I'll probably always like this character because of that.

Kagome is the perfect example of a not so useless girl in these kinds of shows. True, she ain't strong, but she does what she can and tries even more. Good character!