Inuyasha

InuYasha (犬夜叉, '' InuYasha''^?), romanized as INUYASHA and also known as Sengoku Otogizōshi InuYasha (戦国御伽草子 犬夜叉, lit. InuYasha, a feudal fairy tale^?), is a manga written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi, first published in 1996. Its anime adaptation, released in 2000, was directed by Yasunao Aoki and Masashi Ikeda. The series takes place mostly in the Japan of the Sengoku Period. Around that time, Kagome Higurashi, a 21st century teenager, meets Inuyasha, a han'yō who longed to possess the Shikon no Tama (四魂の玉, 'Shikon no Tama'^? pearl of the four souls) to become a yōkai or purebred demon, but, upon learning that Kagome caused its fragmentation, he must venture to recover part of it by. Kagome decides to accompany him in the search for the fragments, for which he must alternate between an everyday life in his original time and recovering the Shikon no Tama in the Sengoku Period. In contrast to the previous works of his author, who are characterized by having a humorous nature, InuYasha has a much more serious and dark concept, the Sengoku Era being the appropriate place to display the violent content that the work has.

The manga was published from November 1996 to June 2008 by Shōgakukan in the weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine, totaling 558 chapters compiled in 56 volumes. On the other hand, the first anime adaptation was made by the studios. Sunrise and aired on the Yomiuri TV network from October 16, 2000 to September 14, 2004, totaling 167 episodes covering up to chapter 356 of the manga. The second adaptation is titled InuYasha Kanketsu-hen (犬夜叉 完結編, 'InuYasha Kanketsu-hen'^? lit. InuYasha: final act), It was also made by Sunrise and broadcast in Japan on Yomiuri TV from October 3, 2009 to March 29, 2010, with 26 episodes adapting the remaining manga volumes. The series was also adapted into four animated films and multiple video games. Both the manga and the anime have achieved great success inside and outside of Japan. In 2002, the InuYasha manga won the Shōgakukan Award in the shōnen (young) category. In the ranking published by TV Asahi of the best 100 anime series of 2006, InuYasha peaked at number twenty.

On May 7, 2020, the first images of the sequel in anime format that deals with the daughters of InuYasha and Sesshomaru (his brother) were published. It is titled Hanyo no Yashahime (半妖の夜叉姫, Han'yō no Yashahime, the Half-Demon Princess^?). It premiered on October 3, 2020 and ended on March 26, 2022.

Plot

During the Sengoku period, a half-demon (hanyō) named InuYasha steals the Pearl of Shikon (Shikon is not in the original; Jewel of the 4 Souls or the Sphere of the Four Spirits in the Spanish anime adaptation) with the aim of use it to become a full demon (yōukai). However, her plan is frustrated by a priestess named Kikyō who, on the verge of death from a very serious injury, using her last strength, shoots a sacred arrow at him, nailing him to the sacred tree (Goshinboku); leaving him paralyzed and asleep for 50 years. Minutes later, the priestess, before dying, asks that his body be burned along with the jewel.

500 years later, in present-day Japan, Kagome Higurashi (Kaome in the Mexican dubbing), a 15-year-old teenager who lives in a temple leaves her house to go to school but her cat disappears next to a well sacred that is part of the temple. Searching for it, a centipede demon emerges from inside the well, breaking the seal and transporting Kagome to feudal times, 500 years ago. There she discovers that she is the reincarnation of the priestess Kikyo who died 50 years before and that the long-awaited pearl with which she was cremated was hidden in her body. Kikyo's younger sister, named Kaede, gives the Shikon pearl to Kagome in order to guard it and continue her work of purifying it, but not before Kagome frees Inuyasha from his seal on the tree to kill the demon. centipede.

Unfortunately, in an incident caused by a raven demon the jewel is destroyed into thousands of shards that are scattered throughout the region. Because of this, InuYasha and Kagome are on a mission to retrieve the fragments before other demons use them to throw the world into chaos.

During their journey, they both meet Shippô, a little orphaned fox demon; Miroku, a monk with a powerful curse that threatens to kill him in the same way that happened to his ancestors, Sango, a warrior dedicated to exterminating demons, whose younger brother Kohaku was killed, resurrected and manipulated by Naraku, and finally his pet, a nekomata named Kirara. All of them, from different situations and related to each other's past, come together in search of the fragments to prevent them from falling into the hands of a Hanyo named Naraku, the main enemy of the series, responsible for the numerous tragedies of each of the characters in the play, including InuYasha and Kikyō's heartbreak that ended with InuYasha being sealed in the Sacred Tree and the priestess's subsequent death; Miroku's ancestral curse (a black vortex in the palm of his right hand) that threatens to kill him, and ultimately the death of all of Sango's clansmen and the kidnapping of his brother.

In addition to having constant confrontations with Naraku and his alter egos, InuYasha and his friends will have to face other problems, among which are the protagonist's yōkai half-brother, Sesshōmaru, a complete demon who hates him for keeping the sword of his father; Kikyō herself, who is resurrected in a body made from her ashes, mud and human bones and wants revenge and also Kôga, a wolf demon from a pack whose comrades were killed by Naraku, determined to take revenge and who feuds. with InuYasha's love for Kagome.

Finally, after many difficulties and the loss and/or withdrawal of some of the previous characters, Naraku manages to collect all the fragments of the Shikon pearl and manages to contaminate it completely. However, Kagome can see that Naraku is afraid of losing his humanity and this causes the Hanyō to hesitate in wanting him. InuYasha and his companions decide to face him and despite finally defeating him once and for all, Naraku manages to achieve his goal: to make the fight for the Shikon pearl perpetuate by locking Kagome inside the pearl, forcing her to make a wish with which his soul will be trapped inside the pearl along with Naraku's. In this way, both will fight for eternity in the same way that it happened with the Midoriko Priestess and the demons who fought to get the Sphere.

InuYasha chases Kagome inside the dimension of the pearl and after meeting her again, the young priestess from the future makes a wish to the pearl: that it disappear forever, ending Naraku once and for all and finally ending him. conflict. However, InuYasha and Kagome end up parting ways, and the well that allows both of them to time travel is sealed. Three years pass in the Sengoku period, and things have changed for InuYasha's group: Miroku and Sango have married and have three children; Shippo now often travels outside of Kaede's village to become a stronger demon-fox; Kohaku has decided to continue his journey to become a demon exterminator, Rin has also stayed with humans for a while as advice from the old Kaede and finally Koga marries Ayame (werewolf member of the same tribe of wolves as Koga, character only seen in the anime).

Back to the future, Kagome has already graduated from high school and is now 18 years old. After this, his wish to see InuYasha again and be in the feudal era makes the well work again so that Kagome can travel back in time one last time. With the support of her mother and her family, Kagome returns to the Sengoku period where she is finally reunited with InuYasha and eventually stays in feudal Japan with her friends and Inuyasha, whom she marries.

Production

After finishing Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi began working on a manga that had a more serious and less comedic approach than her previous works, giving rise to InuYasha. To justify the violent content of the work, Takahashi considered the Sengoku era to be the most appropriate time to show the violent focus of the work. Takahashi did not do research work prior to the development of the places where the work takes place since she considered that they were of general knowledge. For the month of June of the year 2001, InuYasha did not have a definite ending since nothing had been resolved about the relationship between InuYasha and Kagome. Furthermore, Takahashi had not established a denouement for her manga as she had in previous works, having envisioned how she would end the work as its serialization progressed.

Main characters

• Inuyasha (夜국, Inuyasha^? trad. Inu: Dog, Yasha: demon Yaksha, figuratively "demon"): he is a hanyō (human and beast). It was sealed by Kikyō for fifty years in the sacred tree of which Kagome arouses. InuYasha, at the beginning, only seeks the pearl of Shikon (known as the pearl of the four spirits in Spanish) to become a complete yōkai (demon). It possesses the characteristics of a demon-dog: fiero, indomable and obstinate. His father leaves the Tessaiga sword (in the sleeve called Tetsusaiga/ and Steel Colmillo in the Latin version of the anime), which he uses in his battles against monsters and enemies. He's in love with Kikyō before he's sealed him, then feel guilt because of his death, after meeting Kagome, he starts to feel attracted to her and gradually falls in love with her. At the end of the series they end up married. His seiyū It's Kappei Yamaguchi.

• Kagome Higurashi/Aome (日本語, Higurashi Kagome^?): is a 15-year-old girl, a third-year-old high school student and from contemporary times. It is the reincarnation of Kikyō, the same priestess who had sealed InuYasha and died 50 years ago. Because of this, Kagome has the sphere of Shikon (or sphere of the 4 spirits) within it, has spiritual powers and the ability to perceive the presence of the fragments of the pearl of Shikon (the pearl of the four spirits). Kagome, as history advances, falls in love with InuYasha. At the end of the series you want to disappear the pearl of shikon, thus asking for the right desire. Upon returning to Sengoku end up married to Inuyasha. His seiyū It's Satsuki Yukino.

• Miroku (▪, Miroku^? of the Sanskrit Maitreya): He is a strong, intelligent, and woman-giver Buddhist monk who carries a curse made by Naraku to his ancestors, who he has inherited and his firstborn will inherit it if it is not undone. The curse consists of a black hole (Kazaana) in your right hand that absorbs everything around you and, in the future, will also absorb the one who possesses it. The monk constantly tries to seduce any woman who crosses his path (with the excuse of giving birth to a child before his death), something that Sango detests, since he proposes to him marriage and shows no interest in the relationship or intentions of fidelity. However, the decision to protect her and her affection for her help her keep her promise and end up married at the end of the series. His seiyū It's Kōji Tsujitani.

• Sango (▪, Sango^?): is a monster exterminator (oriented, taijiya^?) 16 years. He has no family since his brother Kohaku (manipulated by Naraku) killed his entire clan. The end of Sango in history is to avenge the death of his family and release his brother from Naraku, who uses him as a servant. Sango falls in love with Miroku, one of his traveling companions. He loves her, too, but he's a womanizer, so Sango gets extremely jealous. His seiyū It's Houko Kuwashima.

• Kirara ( , Kirara^?): is a two-tailed cat (nekomata) that accompanies Sango. It can become a great demon panther and fly helping the group in their battles. He is very brave and faithful, he was a companion of Midoriko, the grandfather and father of Sango before her. His seiyū It's Tarako.
• Shippō (▪, Shippō^?): it is a fox demon that has a childlike look. He joins InuYasha and Kagome because they had fragments of the pearl that would serve him to avenge his father who was killed by the Lightning Brothers: Hiten and Keep. When the brothers are defeated, Shippō stays in the group. His seiyū It's Kumiko Watanabe.

• Sesshōmaru ( ン, Sesshōmaru^?): is the half-brother of InuYasha. Sesshōmaru is a very powerful and solitary yōkai that feels great contempt for humanity and those of impure blood. He has a servant who saved his life, Jaken. Although he despises humans, he will meet Rin, an orphaned little human who saw his parents die, and they continue the way together. At first, he is an antagonist by wanting to seize his brother's sword and remove it, but in the end he joins the struggle to exterminate Naraku. His seiyū It's Ken Narita.

• Kikyō ( , Kikyō^?): is the first woman Inuyasha wanted. Both had promised to be together and use the pearl to make him human, but they were victims of Naraku's trap and ended up hating. He dies from a deadly wound just after sealing InuYasha for 50 years. Revive thanks to the Urasue witch as a clay body and its ashes that need souls with tragic pasts to live. His main objective, then, becomes revenge for Naraku for his tragic past. His seiyū It's Noriko Hidaka.

• Naraku ( , Naraku^? of the Sanskrit Naraka: is the main antagonist of the series. Naraku was born from the merger of a thief named Onigumo along with hundreds of demons. His main objective is to get the pearl, although his first desire - when he was only a human - was that Kikyō fell in love with him. He is always accompanied by poisonous bees created by himself (Saimyōshōs), in order not to be absorbed by Miroku. As your powers increase you are able to create extensions and puppets. His seiyū It's Toshiyuki Morikawa.

• Kôga ( , Kôga^?): he is the head of the pack of the wolves demons. One day they meet Kagome and Inuyasha, from that moment on, Koga feels an attraction to Kagome after having kidnapped her and asked for her marriage. He's an ally of Inuyasha, but he's not one of his friends at all, as they both compete for Kagome. Koga is also behind Naraku because he killed part of his pack. Koga has two assistants. His seiyū It's Taiki Matsuno.

• Rin (RANK:, Rin^?): is an orphaned girl who finds Sesshōmaru badly wounded and helps him, despite his rejection. One day, Koga's demon wolves attack her and the killer, Sesshōmaru finds her dead and decides to relive her with her Tenseiga sword (also called the Sacred Colmillo, created with her father's chopper to relive people, once for every person). His seiyū Mamiko Noto.

Content of the work

Some of the InuYasha sleeves (in yellow).

Manga

Created by Rumiko Takahashi, InuYasha ran in Shōgakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine between November 1996 and June 2008 with a total of 558 chapters compiled into 56 Tankōbon. republished the series in Wide-ban format with a total of 30 volumes from January 18, 2013 to June 18, 2015. The last of these volumes contains an extra epilogue chapter that Takahashi published in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on February 6, 2013, called "Since Then" (あれから, Arekara).

In the United States, VIZ Media has licensed the manga and anime for the production and distribution of the series in the West. In Spain, the manga is published by Glénat editorial, in Mexico by Grupo Editorial Vid since its first launch on May 9, 2006 and later by Editorial Panini from August 2018, and in Argentina by Larp Editores, which only edited the first 12 volumes before discontinuing it, and from 2021 by Editorial Ivrea which publishes the wide ban version.

Anime

Based on the first thirty-six volumes of the manga, the anime adaptation of InuYasha was produced by Sunrise and directed by Masashi Ikeda (episodes 1 to 44) and Yasunao Aoki (episodes 45 to 167)..) with the scripts by Katsuyuki Sumizawa (responsible for the scripts for Gundam Wing) and character design and animation direction by Yoshihito Hishinuma. The anime was originally broadcast on Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV from October 16, 2000 to September 13, 2004, with a total of one hundred and sixty-seven episodes. In addition, 2 OVAs and 4 movies were created based on the series, with completely different plots that take place in the timeline in which the original series takes place.

In the United States, the series was classified as TV-PG and aired on Cartoon Network through the Adult Swim block from August 31, 2002 to October 27, 2006. In Latin America, the series along with the old Toonami block made its debut on Cartoon Network on December 2, 2002, and because it was broadcast in a daytime schedule, the series was distributed to Latin America with strong censorship, especially in violent situations in almost all episodes. In Spain it was released on the Buzz channel on June 15, 2004. Subsequently, the series has been broadcast on the Localia, K3, Cartoon Network, Canal Sur 2, AXN and Animax channels. In addition, it has been broadcast in Colombia by Channel 13 in 2009, as well as on the Chilean television channel Etc...TV, although only 160 of its 167 episodes, since the latter were not dubbed into Spanish for Latin America. In Latin America it was broadcast again by Telefe's ZTV block since November 2012 in Argentina and in Chile by Etc...TV in March 2012, with the particularity that Etc...TV broadcast the previews of the following episodes dubbed plus the "Inuyasha Character Cards" which were not broadcast during previous broadcasts on both Cartoon Network and local channels.

Cosplayers Inuyasha and Kikyo.

In 2008, during the event "It's a Rumik World", an ova called InuYasha: Kuroi Tessaiga was shown, which is adapted from the manga, after having concluded and being compiled in 56 volumes with 558 episodes being published.

In the 34th volume of Shönen Sunday magazine, the continuation of the anime was confirmed under the name InuYasha Kanketsu-hen (犬夜叉 完結編, InuYasha: The Final Act^?), which was adapted from volumes 36 to 56 of the manga. It featured the same voice cast, and Sunrise again produced the animation for the episodes. The anime, with a duration of 26 episodes, premiered on October 3, 2009 on the Yomiuri TV network and ended its broadcast on March 29, 2010. Since its premiere, one episode per week has been broadcast on Yomiuri TV every year. on Saturdays, to later be changed to Mondays. In Italy, it was released on November 13, 2010 on MTV Italia, with a preview on its website since October 3, 2010, with the advancement of the first two episodes. On Canal Super 3 (Spain) it was released on October 3, 2010, only with Catalan dubbing.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the InuYasha anime is composed of a series of openings and endings that appear successively in the chapters, as well as compilations of the themes that serve as background to the story created by Kaoru Wada.

Openings

1. Episodes 1 to 34: "Change the world" by V6
2. Episodes 35 to 64: "I am" by Hitomi Furuya
3. Episodes 65 to 95: "Owarinai yume" by Nanase Aikawa
4. Episodes 96 to 127: "Grip!" by Every Little Thing.
5. Episodes 128 to 153: "One day, one dream" by Tackey & Tsubasa.
6. Episodes 154 to 167: "Angelus" by Hitomi Shimatani

Endings

1. Episodes 1 to 20: "My will" by Dream.
2. Episodes 21 to 41: "Fukai mori" by Do As Infinity.
3. Episodes 42 to 60: "Dearest" by Ayumi Hamasaki.
4. Episodes 61 to 85: "Every heart", by BoA.
5. Episodes 86 to 108: "Shinjitsu no uta" by Do As Infinity.
6. Episodes 109 to 127: "Itazurana kiss" by Day after tomorrow.
7. Episodes 128 to 146: "Come" by Namie Amuro.
8. Episodes 149 to 165: "Brand-new world" by V6.

InuYasha: Kanketsu-hen

Opening

1. Episodes 1 to 26: "Kimi ga inai mirai" by Do As Infinity

Endings

1. Episodes 1 to 9: "With you" by AAA. Latin Version:Gabriela Vega and Marc Winslow
2. Episodes 10 to 17: "Diamond" by alan.
3. Episodes 18 to 26: "Töi michi no saki de" by Ai Takekawa.

Video Games

The anime series has been adapted into a total of 10 video games. Four for desktop video consoles, five for portable consoles and even a mobile phone game that was released on June 21, 2005. To this are also added card games created by the company Score Entertainment. InuYasha also appear in the games Sunday vs Magazine: Shuuketsu!! Choujou Dai Kessen (for PSP) and Puzzle & Dragons (for smartphones), which compile various characters from Shōnen Sunday and Shōnen Magazine.