Episode 88

The Three Sprites of the Monkey God  is the eighty-eighth episode of the InuYasha anime.

Synopsis

 * 1) Inuyasha and his friends come across a village that has been almost destroyed by a monkey demon, and they are tasked with stopping the demon.
 * 2) The monkey demon proves to be nothing more than three young monkey demons, Gon, Bun and Ken, who are looking for the monkey god, who lives within a sacred object, and they believe the villagers have him.
 * 3) They eventually find the monkey god's sacred object being used as a weight in a pickling pot; Miroku frees the monkey deity, and he tells them that he felt a horrible demonic aura pass overhead, and it was headed in the direction of the "oxen tiger", or northeast.

Summary
Inuyasha and the rest of the group are passing by a village, and soon learn of three monkeys that are searching for their master, the Monkey God. They magically attached Inuyasha's right hand to a giant boulder. And worse, they can't seem to remember how to undo the spell; Inuyasha dreads what would happen if Sesshōmaru or Koga would think, as they might respectively take the Tessaiga and Kagome. His friends also imagine how his life would be with the boulder, like Inuyasha replacing his Iron Reaver Soul Stealer attack by a "Stone Wielder Boulder Greaver". So, with the villagers' help, they search all over the region for the sacred object in which the Monkey God resides, with Inuyasha lugging the boulder all the way. By nightfall, they soon discover the villagers mistaken the object for a simple rock and used it as a weight for pickling. Though the three monkeys accuse the villagers of stealing the rock, it turns out that when they hurried out of the burning shrine, they were distracted by acorns, thus they forgot about it. Miroku then douses the rock in purification water, freeing the Monkey God. By next day, a compromise is settled, in which the Monkey God will protect the village in exchange for building a new shrine and regular offerings. Inuyasha on the other hand is freed and groans what a waste of time it was. The Monkey God then informs them that he felt a strong demonic aura that passed over the village in the direction of the Oxen-Tiger. As Inuyasha and company get on their way, they are showered with acorns by the three monkeys, who then moon both Inuyasha and Shippo.

Trivia

 * The monkey god clearly has misplaced trust in his follows. (They're dumber than dirt).

Differences from the manga

 * Inuyasha having fantasies about Sesshōmaru taking Tessaiga and Kōga stealing Kagome away while his hand is stuck to the boulder is exclusive to the anime.
 * Miroku, Sango, and Kagome imagining what Inuyasha's life would be like if he was forced to live with the boulder attached to his hand is exclusive to the anime.

第八十八集