InuYasha

**InuYasha** is an action, adventure, drama, romance, fantasy, comedy, Shonen battle anime series written by

    Katsuyuki Sumisawa, directed by Masashi Ikeda for episodes 1-54 and Yasuano Aoki for episodes 55-167, musically composed by Kaoru Wada, and produced by Michihiko Suwa, Hideyuki Tomioka, and Studio Sunrise.  It originally aired from October 16, 2000 to September 13, 2004 for 167 episodes.  It's based on a manga written by influential mangaka Rumiko Takahashi and published by Shogakukan in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday.  The anime adaptation has had four anime movies attached to it, as well as a sequel in 2010 called InuYasha:  The Final Act, the latter of which finishing the story in anime form.

## Plot

In modern-day Tokyo, Kagome Higurashi lives on the grounds of her family's Shinto shrine with her mother, grandfather and little brother. On her fifteenth birthday, when she goes to retrieve her cat, Kagome is dragged into the enshrined Bone Eater's Well (骨喰いの井戸 *Honekui no Ido*) by a centipede demon that emerged from it. But rather than hit the bottom, Kagome finds herself in the past during Japan's Sengoku period. The demon is revealed to have originally been defeated half a century prior by a warrior priestessnamed Kikyo who is the keeper of theShikon Jewel (四魂の玉 *Shikon no Tama*, lit. "The Jewel of Four Souls"), an artifact created by the sacrifice of a priestess named Midoriko which grants its holder's desires. As her resemblance to Kiyo pointed out by her younger sister Kaede, Kagome is revealed to be the priestess reincarnated with the Shikon Jewel contained in her own body after Kikyo had it placed on her funeral pyre in an attempt to keep it safe in death. Kagome then came across a youth pinned by a sacred arrow on a tree, learning he is a half-dog demon (yōkai) named Inuyasha whom Kiyo trapped as her final act when he attempted to steal the jewel. Though Kagome frees Inuyasha to kill the centipede demon, the half-demon subdued by a magical necklace to keep him in line, the Shikon Jewel was extracted from her body and it later taken by a crow demon before it was accidently shattered into many shards that fell across Japan and into the possession of those who gain the individual shards' power.

After Inuyasha gains his father's sword Tessaiga, placing him at odds with his older brother Sesshomaru, he aids Kagome in collecting the shards and dealing with the threats they cause as they are joined by young fox demon Shippo. But when Kikyo was partially revived while revealed to have been Inuyasha's lover, her version of how their falling out occurred brings the events into question. It was when the group is joined by the perverted cursed monk Miroku that the events which resulted in Inuyasha's imprisonment and Kiyo's death were caused by a devious half-demon named Naraku who also cursed Miroku's bloodline. The evolving Naraku is revealed to have been born from the soul of an evil man named Onigumo inhabiting a body created by countless demons as part of a pact to acquire the Shikon Jewel for his own ends, seeking out the shard while absorbing demons to increase his power and remove any weaknesses. Inuyasha's group is soon joined after by Sango, a demon slayer whose clan was killed when her younger brother Kohaku fell under Naraku's control and is kept alive by a jewel shard. Over time, Inuyasha enhances Tessaiga into stronger forms while contends with Naraku's minion incarnations like Kagura and the reanimated Band of Seven. Inuyasha's team is loosely allied by Sesshomaru who took an orphaned girl named Rin as a ward, Kikyo, and a wolf demon named Koga who seeks to avenge his comrades while flirting with Kagome.

While Naraku momentarily removes his heart in the form of the Infant, who later attempts to overthrow Naraku through his vessel Moryomaru, Kohaku regains his freewill and memories and attempts to help out of guilt for indirectly killing his father. During that time, Sesshomaru settles things with Inuyasha to enable his brother to perfect Tessaiga to its optimal abilities. Eventually, Koga is forced to stand on the sidelines while Kikyo uses the last of her life force to give Kohaku a second chance at life as Naraku finally reassembles the Shikon Jewel. Although Inuyasha and his allies defeat him, realizing his true desire is for Kikyo's love despite his hatred towards her and that it can never be granted, Naraku uses his wish to trap himself and Kagome in the Shikon Jewel. Revealed to sentient, the Shikon Jewel intends to have Kagome make a selfish wish so she and Naraku will be trapped in conflict and prolong its existence. But with Inuyasha by her side, Kagome wishes for the Shikon Jewel to disappear. The action, though, causes Kagome to return to her time with the Well sealed, and she and Inuyasha lose contact for three years.

In that time, the Sengoku period changes drastically: Sango and Miroku have three children together; Kohaku resumes his journey to become a strong demon slayer with Kirara as his companion; and Shippo attains the seventh rank as a fox demon. Rin lives with Kaede to get her re-accustomed to living with humans in case she so chooses. Back in the present, Kagome graduates from high school before finally managing to get the Bone Eater's Well in her backyard to work again. Kagome returns to the Sengoku period, where she stays with Inuyasha and becomes his wife.

## Movies

1. InuYasha The Movie:  Affections Touching Across Time
2. InuYasha The Movie 2:  The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass
3. InuYasha The Movie 3:  Swords of an Honorable Ruler
4. InuYasha The Movie 4:  Fire on the Mystic Island

## Video Games

1. InuYasha:  Kagome's Warring States Diary
2. InuYasha: The Sealed Scroll Picture
3. InuYasha:  Kagome's Dream Diary
4. InuYasha: Naraku's Trap! Invitation to the Forest of Illusion
5. InuYasha
6. InuYasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale
7. InuYasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask
8. InuYasha:  Feudal Combat
9. InuYasha: Secret of the Divine Jewel

## Why It Rocks

1. Great animation.
2. Very appealing art style and character designs.
3. Excellent music and soundtrack.
4. Enjoyable fight scenes.
5. Good voice acting in both sub and dub.
6. Amazing characters with lots of intrigue, complexity, and character development, the best stand out ones being InuYasha, Kagome Higurashi, Sango the Demon Slayer, and Miroku the Monk, among others.
7. This series, along with Rumiko Takahashi's other works, helped to create a lot of the tropes still used in anime today.  First is, it helped to inspire a lot from Bleach.  InuYasha is very similar to Ichigo Kurosaki, the Tesaiga is very similar to Zangetsu, the Wind Scar is very similar to the original Getsuga Tensho, the Sacred Shikon Jewel is very similar to the Hogyoku, and Naraku is very similar to Sosuke Aizen.  It was also on the forefront of including strong romantic elements into Shonen Battle anime and manga like this, which was almost non existent back then.
8. The romance, despite being tedious at times, was still enjoyable and a nice change of pace, and the outcome of it was very pleasing.  This includes both InuYasha x Kagome AND Miroku x Songo.
9. Miroku was one of the earliest examples of a perverted monk in anime, which has become very common today.
10. Naraku is an increidble villain, not too complex, but very entertaining and menacing.
11. While it is really long, it's still on the shorter side of things compared to other similar Shonens.  The original series was only 167 episodes long, and if you include The Final Act, it's still only 193 episodes.
12. The best thing about the characters are the interpersonal relationships they share and the drama that takes place because of it.  Weather it's InuYasha and Kagome, Kagome and Songo, Songo and Miroku, Songo and her little brother Kohaku, InuYasha and Sesshomaru, Sesshomaru and Rin, or Naraku and everyone.
13. All of the powers are really cool and interesting.  Weather it's the badass sword Tesaiga, Songo's Demon Slaying Boomerang, Kagome's Bow and Arrows, Naraku's Shapeshifting, Naraku's Splitting his soul into separate entities, or Miroku's Wind Tunnel.
14. While it can still get kind of repetitive at times, there's still more variety in this show than most other shows like this.

## Bad Qualities

1. Like many Shonens similar to it, InuYasha does have a lot of filler content in the anime adaptation, although it's not nearly as much as shows like Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Bleach, One Piece, and Dragonball Z, which is probably because it wasn't nearly as long as those ones.
2. The original airing of the show in the early 2000's on Adult Swim only aired the first two seasons over and over agian.
3. While some of the villains are entertaining, such as Naraku, they aren't very complex.
4. Kikyo was an awful character, she had no purpose of existing other than making the romance between InuYasha and Kagome more complicated, and there's plenty of better ways that this could have been done.
5. While there is more variety than mot shows like this, it can still get kind of repetitive at times.

## Reception

### Manga

*Inuyasha* manga has sold more than 45 million copies in Japan alone;[58] individual volumes from *Inuyasha* have been popular in Japan, taking high places in rankings listing sales.[59][60] In 2001, the manga won the Shogakukan Manga Award for Best Shōnen title of the year.[61] In North America, the manga volumes have appeared various times in *The New York Times*[62][63] and Diamond Comic Distributors top selling lists.[64][65] Moreover, in 2005 *Inuyasha* was one of the most researched series according to Lycos.[66]

### Anime

The anime of *Inuyasha* was ranked twenty by TV Asahi of the 100 best anime series in 2006 based on an online survey in Japan.[67] In ICv2's Anime Awards from both 2004 and 2005, the series was the winner in the category of Property of the Year.[68][69] In the Anime Grand Prix polls by *Animage*, *Inuyasha* has appeared various times in the category of Best Anime, taking third place in 2003.[70][71] In the American Anime Awards from 2007, *Inuyasha* was a nominee in the categories of Best Cast, Best Anime Feature and Best Long Series, but lost to *Fullmetal Alchemist* and *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children*, respectively.[72] The English DVDs from the series have sold over one million copies ever since March 2003, with the first film's DVD topping the Nielsen VideoScan anime bestseller list for three weeks.[73][74] Mania Entertainment also listed the series in an article ranking anime series that required a reboot, criticizing the series' repetitiveness.