Inuyasha: Into the Miasma, Volume 11
Director Masashi Ikeda evokesBeauty and the Beastwhen Kagome defends  the gentle but monstrous half-demon Jenenji from an angry mob. After  witnessing her kindness, Inu-Yasha reveals how he suffered because he was neither  fully human nor fully demon, and rejected by all. Naraku draws his webs of deceit  and fear ever tighter:  as Kagome's arrow damaged his physical body, he's been  pitting demons in deadly battles, so he can take the ultimate victor's body  as his own. The resurrected Kikyo could have stopped this spell, but doesn't.  She takes the laboriously assembled shards of the sacred jewel from Kagome and  gives them to Naraku, mocking him with the revelation that for all his evil,  he remains only a half-demon. As the story builds to its climax, excitement and  adventure replace much of the earlier comedy. (Unrated, suitable for ages 13  and older: violence, grotesque imagery)--Charles Solomon