inuyasha

InuYasha (犬夜叉, InuYasha^?), full title InuYasha, A Feudal era Fairy Tale (戦国お伽草子ー犬夜叉, Sengoku Otogi Zōshi InuYasha^?), is a Japanese shōnen adventure romantic comedy manga created by Rumiko Takahashi . The story tells of the adventures of Kagome Higurashi, who can travel back in time through a mysterious well, and the half-demon, InuYasha, along with their companions Miroku, Sango and Shippo. It was adapted into an 167 episode anime series produced by Sunrise which first aired on Nippon TV in Japan from 16 October 2000 to 13 September 2004. Inuyasha can fairly be dubbed a Japanese soap opera. The television run of the anime has ended, while the manga is still being released in Japan as of today.

The series is named after the main character, InuYasha. The name "InuYasha" literally means "dog demon". Inu (犬) is a Japanese word meaning "dog". Yasha (夜叉) can be translated roughly to "Night Person".

Plot

Main article: Plot of InuYasha

The story begins in Tokyo, Japan with a junior high-school girl named Kagome Higurashi, who, on her way to school, heads to the covered well on the family property (which happens to be a Shinto shrine). She does this to retrieve her cat, Buyo, from the well, since her brother was afraid to go inside. When she approaches the well a centipede demon bursts from the well and grabs her. The demon claims that Kagome possesses the Jewel of the Four Souls (四魂の玉 Shikon no Tama) and attempts to seize it. When the demon is driven off, the very confused Kagome emerges in the Sengoku period of Japan. Kagome wanders into a nearby village and meets an old miko (Shinto shrine maiden) by the name of Kaede, who recognizes that Kagome is almost a mirror likeness for Kikyo (Kikyou), her elder sister (and powerful shrine maiden) who had died at the age of 17 and had her body burned with the Jewel of the Four Souls, taking it with her into the afterlife. Kaede relates the story of how, 50 years earlier, a han'yō named InuYasha had tried to steal the Jewel from Kikyo, mortally wounding her in the process, but Kikyo had managed to strike him with a magical arrow, pinning him into an enchanted sleep against a tree and thus retrieving the Jewel before she finally died. It is later shown that Inuyasha had a relationship with the priestess Kikyo. Inuyasha must fight his half brother Sesshomaru because he wants to kill Inuyasha for their father's sword, Tetsusaiga.

Characters

Main article: InuYasha characters

Main article: InuYasha yōkai list

The plot focuses mainly on Kagome and InuYasha and their expanding group of friends, mainly Miroku, Shippo and Sango as they seek the shards of the Shikon Jewel of the Four Souls. The television show will occasionally skip over to the lives of the antagonists, minor characters or modern-day people as a way of setting up a plot, or clarifying a point. Flashbacks are occasionally used to the same effect. Shippo is a young fox demon who occasionally squabbles with Inuyasha. Miroku is a rather lecherous monk armed with spell scrolls and his trusty spiritual staff, as well as his "Kazaana (Wind Tunnel)", an other-dimensional black hole embedded into his right palm. Sango is the beautiful but very sensible demon exterminator with a giant boomerang-like weapon (Hiraikotsu) and Kirara, her cat-demon companion who transforms from innocent kitten to formidable flaming feline.

Terminology

• Hanyo - commonly translated as "half-demon". They are products of a union between a supernatural being (commonly a yōkai) and a human, and are often considered as an outcast in the human society.
• Obake - ghosts, goblins and monsters from Japanese folklore, including spirits of the human dead.
• Yōkai - belongs to a class of obake and generally has a sort of spiritual or supernatural power. Some possess part animal and part human features.
• Taiyōkai (Daiyoukai) - an especially strong and powerful yōkai. Literally "great yōkai".
• Taijiya - yōkai exterminator.
• Kitsune - fox yōkai from Japanese folklore known by their magic tricks.
• Houshi - Buddhist monk.
• Miko - although commonly translated as "priestess", miko are actually young female attendants at Shinto shrines and temples.
• Shakujo - Buddhist staff.
• O-fuda - translated as "sacred sutras" or "spell scrolls". Papers which hold special powers and are used against yōkai.
• Tanuki - racoon dogs from Japanese folklore.
• Nekomata - A cat older than ten years is said to receive magical powers and two tails.
• Sengoku Jidai - Sengoku period, feudal Japan.

Manga

The manga was serialized in Japan in the weekly publication Shonen Sunday by Shogakukan, with the first installment issued on November 13, 1996. Chapter 476 was published October 4, 2006 with the series still ongoing.^[1] Every 180 pages, usually ten chapters, the issues are collected in bound tankōbon. Volume 45, collecting chapters 439 through 448, was published in May 2006.^[2] Volume 46 has been collected recently, with 47 in sight as the chapters needed to compile 48 are on the verge of completion.

In the United States the English version is published by Viz Communications. The artwork is flipped to conform to the American standard of reading left to right. Volume 1 was published in March 1998, with either two or three new volumes following each year. Volume 26 was published in July 2006.

Anime

Episode guide

Main article: List of InuYasha episodes

Production broadcast history

The InuYasha anime series spanned 167 episodes, and was broadcast across Japan by the anime television network, Animax, who have also aired the series across its English-language network in South Asia (being the first network to fully broadcast the series in the English language) and also across its networks in East Asia, and Nippon Television. The series ended on September 13, 2004.

InuYasha was first broadcast in the United States on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in August 2002. The series later premiered on Canadian television screens, where it is currently airing on YTV.

InuYasha is now also shown on Cartoon Network's Latin American incarnation, Cartoon Network LA. In Latin America, it is shown dubbed in Spanish and in Portuguese (Brazil or with SAP in other countries). Cartoon Network LA can be seen in many countries south of the United States, as well as some cruise ships in the Caribbean. It is unknown if the last 7 episodes will air dubbed in the region.

At one point [in Japan], new episodes of Inuyasha were airing twice a day, 5 times a week, and reruns were being aired Saturday night - 5 episodes in two hours. This is why the series concluded much faster than in the United States. Inuyasha is on rotation on the network, and the official site should be visited to see if the show is currently re-airing.

In the United States, the final episodes of InuYasha are scheduled to be aired starting on October 11, 2006 and the final episode is scheduled to be aired on October 26, 2006. The series is then scheduled to begin its second run starting on December 25, 2006. So far, Adult Swim has aired the first 157 episodes of the program as of August 2, 2006.

The anime is licensed by in North America by Viz and ShoPro Entertainment, and the actual dubbing is done by the Ocean Group.

Eyecatches

Movies

Four movies, which continued the anime plot, have been released. The first movie, InuYasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time was released on December 16, 2001 in Japan with InuYasha the Movie: Fire on the Mystic Island being the last movie to be released; on December 23, 2004 in Japan. The fourth movie was released three months after the series finale of InuYasha in Japan.

Four theatrical releases of the series has appeared so far:

DVD releases

Theme songs

Main article: List of songs from InuYasha

Video games

Games in Japanese

Games in English

Name dispute

There is a long-standing debate about the proper English spelling of the title character's name, an example of the type of dispute that often happens as a result of romanization. Variant spellings include "InuYasha", "Inuyasha", "Inu-Yasha", "Inu-yasha", "Inu Yasha", and "Inu yasha". Fans of the series often use "IY" (or simply, "Inu"), especially on fansites, although it is usually considered to be more of an abbreviation than an actual name. Official licensors use varying spellings, so they provide little guidance in this area; the two most popular versions are "Inuyasha" and the VIZ CamelCase version.

Critical reception

Critics are found to agree that the artwork in both the anime and manga versions of InuYasha is quite impressive^[3], such as Anime News Network praising it as "excellent".^[4] However, some viewers, such as Derrick Tucker, from THEM Anime Reviews, complain that some action scenes are often reused and that sometimes a static image moved against a background is used as a substitute for animation. He concedes, however, that the costs of producing a long anime series like InuYasha often make such compromises unavoidable.^[5] Others have observed that the story engages in frivolous use of reoccuring plot devices such as "barriers" and flashbacks. The story is also accused of running too long with many irrelevant characters, storylines, and battles with no substantial character development involved. Many believe such irrelevant battles and storylines to be filler.

References

External links

Official Sites

• Shonen Sunday's Official InuYasha manga website (Japanese)
• Sunrise's official InuYasha anime website (Japanese)
• Yomiuri Television's official InuYasha anime website (Japanese)
• Viz's official InuYasha website

Unofficial sites

• YTV's InuYasha anime page
• InuYasha on Adult Swim
• InuYasha Trading Card Game website
• Inu Yasha (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Inuyasha (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Inuyasha at the Internet Movie Database
• Avex Movie: InuYasha (Japanese)