InuYasha (犬夜叉), full title
InuYasha, a Feudal Fairy Tale (戦国御伽草子 犬夜叉, Sengoku Otogizōshi InuYasha), 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. The series follows a time-traveling high school
student, a half-
demon, a lecherous
monk, a
fox demon, a demon slayer, and a
nekomata during the
Sengoku period as they seek to find all the fragments of the Jewel of Four Souls and to keep them out of the hands of evildoers, especially
Naraku.
The manga was adapted as two
anime television series produced by
Sunrise. The first, broadcast for 167 episodes on
Yomiuri TV in Japan from October 16, 2000 until September 13, 2004, was directed by Masashi Ikeda for the first forty-four episodes and by Yasunao Aoki for the remainder. The second series, called
InuYasha: The Final Act, began airing October 3, 2009 to cover the rest of the manga series, and is still ongoing.
Plot
The story begins with a flashback to
Feudal Japan, when the half-demon
InuYasha raids a human village to steal the Jewel of Four Souls, a magical jewel that enhances its wielder's powers and can grant a single wish. InuYasha hopes to use the gem to turn himself into a full-blooded
demon, but is soon stopped when
Kikyo, the young
miko of the village, shoots him with a sacred arrow, sealing him onto the sacred tree Goshinboku in the nearby forest. Mortally wounded, Kikyo tells her younger sister,
Kaede, to burn the jewel with her body to prevent it from falling into the hands of evil.
The story then shifts to modern Tokyo, where a junior high school girl named
Kagome Higurashi lives on the grounds of her family's hereditary
Shinto shrine. When she goes into the wellhouse to retrieve her cat, Buyo, a centipede demon bursts out of the enshrined Bone Eater's Well and pulls her through it.
Kagome emerges into a strange wilderness, initially unaware that she has travelled back through time to the
Sengoku period of Japan, fifty years after Kikyo's death. Other than the Bone Eater's Well itself, the only familiar landmark is Goshinboku. She finds InuYasha still sealed onto the tree in an enchanted sleep, and a group of hostile peasants who drag her back to their village.
Their old priestess, Kaede, recognizes Kagome as the reincarnation of her sister Kikyo; when the centipede demon returns, Kaede realizes that the Jewel of Four Souls has also been reborn in Kagome's body. Kagome frees InuYasha so he can kill the centipede demon, but after defeating it, InuYasha again tries to take the Jewel for himself. Kaede thwarts him by placing a magical rosary around his neck, allowing Kagome to subdue him with a simple command.
The Jewel of Four Souls attracts more demons, and the jewel is shattered into numerous shards that disperse across Japan. Even the individual shards are capable of granting great power, and are eagerly sought by humans and demons alike. Kagome and InuYasha set out to collect the shards and restore the Jewel of Four Souls. Along the way, they befriend
Shippo, a small fox demon;
Miroku, a cursed monk; and
Sango, a demon-slayer with a tragic past.
The group encounters many friends and foes during the adventure, including InuYasha's older half-brother
Sesshomaru;
Kikyo, partially resurrected with a fragment of Kagome's soul;
Naraku, a powerful collective demon who manipulated the initial conflict between Kikyo and InuYasha; and a wolf demon named
Koga, who is InuYasha's dedicated rival in both love and war.
Eventually, Naraku collects all of the shards and reassembles the Jewel of Four Souls. Although InuYasha defeats him, Naraku uses his power as the Jewel's owner to wish for Kagome's soul to be trapped inside it with his own, which would allow Naraku to survive within it in eternal conflict with her. Naraku's wish can only be fulfilled by tricking Kagome to also make a selfish wish to save herself, but she has enough confidence in InuYasha, and instead wishes for the Jewel to disappear forever.
Kagome is thrown back into her own time, and InuYasha is no longer able to see her. However, after Kagome's graduation from high school three years later, a portal opens and allows her to return to InuYasha's time. They acknowledge their love for one another and she chooses to remain in the past with him.
Manga
Written and illustrated by
Rumiko Takahashi,
InuYasha premiered in Japan in the November 13, 1996 issue of
Shōnen Sunday,
where it ran until its conclusion in the concluded in the June 18, 2008 issue.
The chapters were published by
Shogakukan in 56
tankōbon volumes, with the first volume released in May 1997, and the last released in February 2009.
Viz Media licensed the series for an English translated release in North America. Initially, Viz released it in monthly American comic book format, each issue containing two or three chapters from the original manga, but eventually abandoned this system in favor of trade paperbacks with the same chapter divisions as the Japanese volumes. Viz released its first trade paperback volume in March 1998. At the time, American manga reprints were normally "flipped" to conform to the American convention of reading books from left to right by
mirroring the original artwork; among other effects, this caused right-handed characters to appear left-handed. Viz later stopped flipping its new manga releases, although
InuYasha was already well into printing by the time this change was made. Reprints of older volumes have not been "re-flipped" to match the newer ones. As of January 12, 2010, 44 volumes were released in North America, and new volumes of the series are being released monthly. Viz has also started to reprint the series in their "VizBig" format, combining three of the original volumes into each omnibus with slightly larger pages and full-color bonus art that was previously reduced to grayscale.
Viz Media also issues a separate series of "
ani-manga" volumes which are derived from full-color
screenshots of the anime episodes. These volumes are slightly smaller than the regular manga volumes, are oriented in the Japanese tradition of right to left, feature new covers with higher quality pages, and a higher price point versus the regular volumes. Each ani-manga volume is arranged into chapters that correspond to the anime episodes rather than the manga.
InuYasha is also licensed for regional language releases in
Brazil by
Editora JBC, Italy by
Star Comics, France by
Kana, Finland, Germany, Norway, and Poland by
Egmont, Spain by
Glénat,
Indonesia by
Elex Media Komputindo, Mexico by
Editorial Vid,
Israel by Aruts Hayeladim,
Vietnam by NXB Trẻ and South Korea by
Haksan Publishing.
Anime television series
Based on the first 36 volumes of the manga series,
the
InuYasha anime adaptation produced by
Sunrise premiered in Japan on
Animax on October 16, 2000 and ran for 167 episodes until its conclusion on September 13, 2004.
It was also broadcast on
Yomiuri TV and
Nippon Television.
In
East Asia and
South Asia it was aired on Animax's English-language networks.
The English
dub of the anime was licensed release in North America by Viz Media.
The series was broadcast on
Cartoon Network as part of its
Adult Swim programming block from August 31, 2002 through October 27, 2006.
A year later the series aired on Canada on
YTV's
Bionix programming block from September 5, 2003 through December 1, 2006.
In the 34th issue of
Shōnen Sunday, it was announced a 26-episode anime adaption of volumes 36 to the end will be made by the original cast and crew and will air on Japan's YTV.
The following week,
Viz Media announced it had licensed the new adaptation, titled
Inuyasha: The Final Act (犬夜叉 完結編, Inuyasha Kanketsu-hen). The series premiered on October 3, 2009 in Japan with the episodes being simulcast via and Shonen Sunday in the United States.
In other parts of Asia the episodes are aired on the same week on
Animax Asia.
Source by :
Wikipedia
The Characters
InuYasha
InuYasha
(犬夜叉) is the titular character and one of the main
protagonists of the series. Born to a dog demon father and human mother, InuYasha is a half-demon who initially wants to use the powers of the Shikon Jewel to become a full demon. After falling in love with
Kikyo, the
miko who guards the Jewel, he changes his mind and wants to become human so he can live with her, but
Naraku manipulates both of them into believing they have been betrayed by one another. Kikyo is fatally wounded, but before she dies, she shoots an arrow through InuYasha to seal him onto a sacred tree. InuYasha remains in suspended animation for fifty years until
Kagome Higurashi, Kikyo's reincarnation, pulls out the arrow and frees him.
After the Shikon Jewel shatters, InuYasha and Kagome travel together to retrieve its shards. At first, he is hostile and uncooperative, but Kikyo's sister Kaede restrains him with a magical necklace that hurls him to the ground whenever Kagome gives the simple command word "Sit!" Initially wary of Kagome's resemblance to Kikyo, InuYasha grows to trust her as a friend and they eventually fall in love with each other. He also forms strong friendships with the other companions they gain. At the end of the series, InuYasha and Kagome acknowledge their love and are living together in the
Feudal Era.
Due to his half-human nature, InuYasha loses his demonic powers and becomes human during the night of the new moon: his hair changes from white to black, and his fangs, claws, and dog ears are replaced by the normal human equivalents. As he is at his most vulnerable during this time, InuYasha is secretive about when it occurs, revealing it only to his most trusted companions.
InuYasha's sword, Tetsusaiga, was made from one of his father's fangs. Later in the series, one of InuYasha's fangs is welded into the sword. Tetsusaiga cannot be wielded by full-blooded demons, as its power is only unleashed when InuYasha uses it to protect humans. It also keeps InuYasha's demon blood in check, preventing it from turning him into a mindless killing machine when his life is in danger. Tetsusaiga's sheath can form a barrier to protect InuYasha from most attacks.
Kagome Higurashi
Kagome Higurashi
(日暮 かごめ, Higurashi Kagome) is one of the main protagonists of the series. Born in modern Japan as the reincarnation of the priestess Kikyo, Kagome has the Shikon Jewel unknowingly hidden inside her body until 1997, when a demon pulls her into the Bone Eater's Well and 500 years back through time.
They emerge in the
Feudal Era about 50 years after Kikyo's death, where the demon extracts the jewel from Kagome.
When another demon seizes the jewel, Kagome shoots it with a bow and arrow,
While trying to protect the jewel using a bow and arrow, she accidentally shatters it into numerous shards that disperse throughout the country. She agrees to help find them, as she can sense the presence of nearby shards. As the series progresses, she falls in love with InuYasha, and finds herself competing with the revived Kikyo for his affections. During the search for the jewel, Kagome's own spiritual powers and archery skills continue to improve. At the end of the series, Kagome returns to her own time for three years. She is then able to return to the Feudal era where she and InuYasha acknowledge their love for one another and she chooses to remain there with him.
Miroku
Miroku
(弥勒) is a
Buddhist monk who travels the countryside performing spiritual services such as exorcisms and demon exterminations, although sometimes he deliberately falsifies these to earn comfortable rewards. Miroku can attack enemies with his holy staff and sutra scrolls, but his greatest weapon, the Wind Tunnel embedded in the palm of his hand, is also a hereditary curse originally inflicted by Naraku upon Miroku's grandfather Miyatsu. The Wind Tunnel sucks in almost anything in its path and is a powerful weapon against demons. However, it grows larger with increasing use, so that Miroku's grandfather and father were eventually consumed by their own Wind Tunnels. Miroku hopes to break the curse by killing Naraku.
Miroku first meets InuYasha by stealing the Shikon Jewel, causing them to fight one another until Kagome leaps between them. After Miroku explains his situation, InuYasha allows him to join their group as a valuable ally. Miroku's
lechery is a recurrent habit, usually manifesting as shameless flattery, semi-surreptitious
groping, and asking random women to bear him a child; he learned these bad habits from the monk Mushin who raised him, but he also has the more serious motive of wanting an heir to follow him if he dies without defeating Naraku. At the end of the series, Miroku no longer bears the Wind Tunnel, and marries Sango. They have three children:
twin girls and a boy.
Sango
Sango
(珊瑚) is a demon slayer who hails from a village of professional demon slayers. Naraku wipes out her entire family and village, then causes Sango to blame InuYasha and try to kill him. When the plot fails, Naraku revives Sango's little brother Kohaku, controlling him as a pawn to manipulate Sango's emotions and attack the rest of InuYasha's group. Sango seeks vengeance against Naraku, but her primary goal is to rescue Kohaku from Naraku's influence and save his life.
Of her broad repertoire of tools and tricks for fighting demons, her most powerful weapon is the Hiraikotsu, a massive boomerang made of purified demon bones. She is accompanied by the demon cat Kirara. Sango is often the victim of Miroku's lecherous tendencies and slaps him for it, but she later confesses her love to him and the two get engaged. After they marry, she allows Kirara to join her brother Kohaku and aid him in his demon slaying.
Shippo
Shippo
(七宝, Shippō) is an orphaned young
fox demon who attempts to steal the Shikon Jewel from Kagome and InuYasha, wanting to become stronger and avenge his father's death. Though his plan fails, Kagome and InuYasha aid him after hearing his story, and he becomes their companion for the rest of the series.
Shippo normally appears to be a young boy with certain fox-like features: his legs, feet, ears, and tail. He can shape-shift, but his other forms (such as a large pink flying balloon) are temporary and often ineffective, usually given away by his lingering fox tail. He can also create illusory duplicates of himself, as well as weak fox-fire magic and toy-based tricks such as his giant spinning top attack. Naively observant, he often directs cheeky comments to InuYasha, earning a smack on the head. InuYasha and Kagome serve as older sibling figures to Shippo. Because of his small size, Shippo often rides on Kirara or the shoulders of others. His actual age is never stated in the series; according to the official
InuYasha guide by Rumiko Takahashi, his appearance is equivalent to that of a seven year old boy.
Kirara
Kirara
(雲母) is Sango's faithful
demon-cat companion. Kirara usually appears to be a small kitten-sized feline with two tails, but can become large enough to carry several passengers (usually Sango, Miroku, and Shippo). Her full-sized form has more prominent fangs, flames around her feet and tail, and enough power to fly through the air fast enough to keep up with InuYasha's top speed.
At the end of the series after Naraku's defeat, she joins Kohaku as he trains to become a demon slayer while Sango starts her new life with Miroku and their children. The anime series suggests that she was once the companion of Midoriko, the miko who created the Shikon Jewel.
She is voiced by
Tarako in both the original Japanese and the English dubbed version of the series.
Kikyo
Kikyo
(桔梗, Kikyō) is a powerful shrine maiden, or
miko, who is given the task of guarding the Shikon Jewel. She falls in love with InuYasha and considers using the jewel to turn him from a half-demon into a full human; this would cause the Shikon Jewel to vanish, allowing her to live as an ordinary woman by his side. However, Naraku disguises himself as InuYasha to attack her village, mortally wounding her. With her last strength, Kikyo shoots a charmed arrow into the real InuYasha to seal him to a sacred tree, then orders the Shikon Jewel to be burned with her on her funeral pyre. The jewel disappears and is apparently destroyed, but is reborn 500 years later in the body of Kagome Higurashi, her spiritual reincarnation.
After Kagome travels back through time and reappears fifty years after Kikyo's death, an ogress tries to pull her reincarnated soul into a clay body made with Kikyo's bones and ashes. Kagome appears to suffer no permanent harm, but a small part of her soul detaches and reanimates the new body with Kikyo's memories, personality, and human appearance. Although Kikyo retains some of her old powers in this form, she remains technically "dead" and must absorb the souls of dead women in order to move. At first, she wants to vengefully drag InuYasha to hell and kill Kagome to recover the rest of her soul. However, Kikyo gradually returns to her former compassionate nature and learns that Naraku caused the real circumstances of her death. She protects Kohaku, saving his life, and finally dies peacefully in InuYasha's arms after Naraku attacks her.
Sesshomaru
Sesshomaru
(殺生丸, Sesshōmaru) is InuYasha's older half-brother. As a full-blooded demon, he is very powerful, though he too has been unable to completely defeat Naraku. Unlike most demons seen in the series, he shows no interest in possessing any of the Shikon shards, feeling confident of his own strength and seeming to find the use of the gem to enhance one's power distasteful. He is initially ruthless in dealing with InuYasha, whom he despises as a half-demon who consorts with humans, and attempts to take the sword Tetsusaiga from him. However, Sesshomaru gradually changes after using Tenseiga, another sword made from one of their father's fangs, to revive the human child
Rin. His growing compassion prompts the master swordsmith
Totosai to reforge Tenseiga, enabling the Meidou Zangetsuha ("dark path of the dawn's moon blast") attack. After Naraku attempts to manipulate him by using Rin as a hostage, Sesshomaru becomes determined to destroy Naraku. He eventually gains his own blade that is a manifestation of his own power, the Bakusaiga. In the anime adaptation, he is voiced by
Ken Narita. In the English dub, he is voiced by
David Kaye.
Naraku
Naraku
(奈落) is the series' primary
antagonist. Naraku is responsible for most of the characters' misfortunes, including the death of Kikyo
, the sealing of InuYasha to the sacred tree,
Miroku's curse, and the death of Sango's family. Naraku was born from the fusion of Onigumo, a crippled human bandit tended by Kikyo, and a horde of weak demons. Driven by frustrated lust for Kikyo, Onigumo made a bargain with the demons: they could eat his flesh, and the demons would combine into one entity to become part of that new body. However the resulting half-demon promptly caused Kikyo's death in an attempt to corrupt and possess the Shikon Jewel.
Naraku is driven by three goals: To become a full demon, to possess a fully-corrupted Shikon Jewel, and to possess Kikyo. The third goal is rooted in Onigumo's heart as a vital part of Naraku's body, causing an obsession with Kikyo that prevents him from killing her. He attempts to rid himself of Onigumo's heart multiple times, ultimately separating it into
The Infant. With his heart freed from his obsession, he is able to later kill Kikyo. Prior to his demise, however, he expressed regret at not being able to have her for his own.
Throughout the series, Naraku creates many subordinate beings from his own body to aid his goal of killing his opponents and reuniting the shards of the Shikon Jewel, whose corrupted form he hopes to use to gain ultimate power.
Myoga
Myoga
(冥加, Myōga) is a flea demon who appears randomly and gives InuYasha information on current events, foes, and the shards of the Shikon Jewel. Assigned to protect Tetsusaiga's hiding place in the grave of InuYasha's father, he runs away when Sesshomaru comes there in search of the sword. Myoga often flees before or during a battle, which the others recognize as a sign of pending danger; his mere presence in any area is enough to determine its safety. Myoga enjoys drinking demon blood, and actually saves InuYasha's life at one point by drinking a spider demon's venom out of his blood. He can save the others in a similar manner, but often gets slapped for drinking their blood without permission. In the anime series, he is engaged to another flea demon named Shoga, but continually runs from her to avoid the marriage.
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