Ninmenka

Ninmenka
Ninmenka
Nihongo	人面果
Name meaning	Human Face Fruit
Viz Manga	Ninmenka
English TV	Ninmenka
Biographical information
Status	Deceased
Death	Killed by Inuyasha's Kaze no Kizu
Physical information
Species	Tree yōkai
Skills information
Abilities	Bearing the human faced fruit
Affiliation
Loyalty	Tōkajin
Debut
Manga Debut	Chapter 79
InuYasha Anime	Episode 57
Voice Actors
Japanese Seiyū	Yukitoshi Hori
English VA	Andrew Kavadas

Ninmenka (人面果（にんめんか）, "Human Face Fruit") was a demon fruit tree which devoured souls of people and turned them into human faced fruit. Tōkajin used these to try and achieve immortality. However Ninmenka only told him this so one day, the demon tree would have the freedom of movement.

History

When Tōkajin waits for the time for him to be sage, he sees a Shikon jewel shard and later complains that it cannot be eaten, so he throws the shard behind him. However, he accidentally threw the shard into Ninmenka, the demon fruit tree. Ninmenka speaks behind Tōkajin, thanking him for the shard and asks him if he wanted to be a sage. Tōkajin answers yes, then Ninmenka orders Tōkajin to eat the human head peaches, in order to become a powerful sage.

Ninmenka devours Tōkajin.

Tōkajin later loses his shards of the Sacred Jewel after Kagome hits him with a sacred arrow, and the shards come flying into Ninmenka and the tree absorbs them. As Inuyasha and Tōkajin fell off a cliff to their doom, Ninmenka catches them with its roots.

Ninmenka then devoured Tōkajin, and transformed itself into a large thorn root monster; the result was Touboku Ninmenka. Inuyasha then reverts to his half-demon form when the sun rises, and he easily destroys Ninmenka.

Powers & Abilities

• Energy Absorption: Ninmenka is able to feed off the blood of people by digging its thorns into their bodies. It in turn grows Ninmenka fruits off of the consumed energy. Ninmenka was able to gain even more energy when consuming a hanyō's blood.
• Ground Phasing: Ninmenka is able to pass through the grounds at speeds faster than the speed of gravity.
• Size Alteration: After consuming three jewel shards, Ninmenka was able to grow its body and increase and decrease the size of its roots, acting as appendages. Ninmenka has grown its roots to lengths that allow it to wrap around Inuyasha's and Tōkajin's body several times.

Manga vs. Anime

• The Ninmenka has the ability to speak in the anime, but does not in the manga. In the anime, the human faced fruit that Ninmenka bears have the appearance of peach-like fruit with small human faces, whereas in the manga the "fruit" that Ninmenka bears look like actual human heads.
• In the manga, Ninmenka is by a river at the base of the mountain where Tōkajin's temple is located. In the anime, it is on top of the mountain and right beside the temple.
• In the anime, Ninmenka absorbs Tōkajin but is destroyed by Inuyasha's Kaze no Kizu shortly after. In the manga, the souls of the people that were trapped in Ninmenka by Tōkajin were able to move on to the afterlife after Tōkajin died.

Trivia

• Ninmenka is based on the mythical tree Jinmenju. It is a tree from the mountain valleys of China that grows fruit in the form of human heads. This fruit is seen smiling or laughing, even when it has fallen off the tree.

Media appearances

Manga

• Chapter 79 (First appearance)
• Chapter 83 (Appears in a flashback)
• Chapter 85

Anime

• Episode 57 (First appearance)
• Episode 58
• Episode 82 (Appears in a flashback)

References

This article or section is a stub. You can help by expanding it or contributing to the discussion.