Hair: orange and auburn, as is his tail.

Eyes: light blue, with slit pupils

Appearance: Shippou is a small and perky kitsune (fox spirit) cub with a huge, fluffy fox tail, fox paws on his legs and the pointed ears of a youkai -- in short, cute enough to eat. He has a blue bow in his hair, and wears a fur vest, baggy pants and a kimono patterned with leaves. Most youkai are able to shapeshift between their quite humanoid youkai form and their animal-like (in Shippou's case, vulpine) true form, but Shippou is only ever seen in his rather human form.

Appellations: Shippou, Shippou-chan

Meaning of Name: Shippou's name is written with the kanji for "seven" and "jewel". This might be word play on the fact that in Japan, shrines are guarded by a statue of a kitsune with seven tails (the Japanese word for tail is "shippo", by the way), which is inordinarily powerful for a fox spirit.

Quote: "Just apologize, even if you don't mean it."

Impressions: Shippou is a child. He may be an obstinate, smart-mouthed child with an attitude, but he's still quite small. He talks big and even fights to the best of his ability alongside his companions, but when things turn ugly he takes cover on someone's shoulder. He is very devoted to his friends, especially Kagome, who is a big sister/mother figure to him. He worries about his comrades, but he is also seen pulling pranks and annoying the pants off Inuyasha (who usually thwaps him for that, and then Kagome rushes to Shippou's rescue again). However, he is quite sharp for a kid -- for example, when he observes to an ungrateful Inuyasha some profound aspect of the hanyou and Kagome's relationship.

History: Shippou joined with Kagome and Inuyasha after his parents were slain. The culprits were a pair of youkai known as Hiten and Manten, the Thunder Brothers, who were after Shippou's father's Shikon shards. Inuyasha killed the brothers, and Shippou now looks to Inuyasha & co. as his new family, and is very protective of them.

Weapons & Attacks: Shippou knows some fox sorcery, meaning that he is capable of some quite convincing illusions. His magic style seems to utilise things such as little straw horses, mushrooms, leaves, acorns and toys -- such as a magic-wielding child might use. He can imbue a straw horse with the ability to carry a person for some way, create illusionary copies of himself, send emergency messages in the form of bawling acorns etc. His bravure probably is the huge pink balloon he can transform himself into, useful for such feats as flying, floating companions up cliffsides, floating on water, and chewing Inuyasha's head...

Kitsune-bi ("Fox fire"): Shippou can create blue, phantasmal flames that burn away things like cobwebs and other flimsy stuff, illuminate, and also function as a magical shield.

Things of Note: Like all kitsune, Shippou has a very bad sweet tooth. ^_^ No wonder Kagome always brings him candy from her time... (Info from Ness)

Love Life: There was a cute little girl named Satsuki that Shippou seemed to have a crush on, but beyond that... well, he is still a small kid.

First Appearance: manga act 28, anime episode 9
Seiyuu (Japanese): Watanabe Kumiko
Voice Actor (English): Jillian Michaels