Claim: Sunrise created anime from 1979 to 2008.

, also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi . It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13 , 1996 and concluded on June 18 , 2008 , with the chapters collected into 56 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan .   The series follows Kagome Higurashi , a 15-year-old girl from Tokyo who is transported to the Sengoku period after falling into a well in her family shrine , where she meets the half-demon dog Inuyasha . When a monster from that era tries to take the magical Shikon Jewel embodied in Kagome , she accidentally shatters the Jewel into many pieces that are dispersed across Japan . Inuyasha and Kagome start traveling to recover it before the powerful demon Naraku finds all the shards . Inuyasha and Kagome gain several allies during their journey , including Shippo , Miroku , Sango and Kirara . In contrast to the typically comedic nature of much of Takahashi 's previous work , Inuyasha deals with darker subject matter , using the setting of the Sengoku period to easily display the violent content .   It was adapted into two anime television series produced by Sunrise . The first was broadcast for 167 episodes on Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV in Japan from October 16 , 2000 until September 13 , 2004 . The second series , called Inuyasha : The Final Act , began airing five years later on October 3 , 2009 to cover the rest of the manga series and ended on March 29 , 2010 after 26 episodes . Four feature films and an original video animation have also been released . Other merchandise include video games and a light novel . Viz Media licensed the manga , the two anime series , and movies for North America . Both Inuyasha and Inuyasha : The Final Act aired in the United States on Adult Swim -LRB- and later on its revived Toonami block -RRB- from 2002 until 2015 .