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Title: InuYasha
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents should keep all kids away from "Inu-Yasha," as this series is NOT for children (or even preteens for that matter)! The series contains very graphic violence, which includes blood gushing, heads flying, body parts being devoured, and all sorts of things. There is also some rough language here and there, and a few sexual remarks and mild nudity also makes it way into the series. Trust me folks, this series deserves it's OT rating, as this is definetly R rated material. Fans of action will get the most out of this series, as the action is the best part of this series. Fans of comedy may get tired of this series after the 10th book, as the jokes tend to get stale after a while. Fans of romance may be disapointed that the romances in this series are so shakey, and never appear to go anywhere. Both men and women will find things to love about "Inu-Yasha." Whether or not they'll be able to hold interest for 40+ books is up to the individuel person. |
If there is one series that personifies the positive aspects of Rumiko Takahashi, it's not "Maison Ikkoku" or "Mermaid Forest." It's "Inu-Yasha." If there is one series that personifies the negative aspects of Rumiko Takahashi, it's not "Ranma ½" or " Urusei Yatsura." It's "Inu-Yasha." "Inu-Yasha" is the brain child of Rumiko Takahashi (of course), and has been her most successful series to date. Not only is it Takahashi's most successful series to date, but this is also one of the most successful Japanese series to date as well. The "Inu-Yasha" anime series is on Cartoon Network's popular Adult Swim block, where it is one of the network's highest rated shows. The "Inu-Yasha" DVD's are huge sellers, the first movie actually made its way into a select number of movie theaters before becoming a best seller on DVD. There is actually merchandise of the show made in America, including shirts, toys, and *gasp* Playstation video games that are released every year. And the manga is one of the biggest (and longest) manga's ever written, with no end in sight. "Inu-Yasha" is, to be blunt, just as big of a success as "Dragon Ball Z" was, if not more so.
There are many anime fans who love the show to death and can't get enough of it, while there are just as many anime fans who think the franchise is highly overrated (to some credit though, the latter ALWAYS happens with everything that becomes super popular). Unlike CLAMP I don't have a love/hate relationship with Takahashi's works. I don't always give them top scores, but the reasons are usually for other reasons rather then my enjoyment of the series (flipped artwork, is too long, etc...) My opinion of "Inu-Yasha" is a rather simple one though. My view of "Inu-Yasha" is that it's the best above average series I have ever read. The series revolves around high scholar Kagome, who one day gets sucked into her family well and wakes up to find herself in medieval Japan. There she see's someone nailed to a tree: A half-demon named Inu-Yasha. At first Kagome wants to leave Inu-Yasha nailed to that tree since the nearby villagers warn her not to release the half-demon, but for some reason when Kagome woke up in this strange world she woke up with something called the Shikon Jewal, and for some reason a big and evil demon wants to kill her and take the jewal for herself (it turns out the reason is because the jewal has unlimited power). Fearing for her life, Kagome free's Inu-Yasha from the spell binding him to the tree, who kills the demon and then turns on Kagome since HE wants the jewal too (trust me Kagome, I feel for you)!
However, before Inu-Yasha can attack Kagome and take the jewal from her, the elder woman of the village puts a magical necklace around Inu-Yasha's neck, and whenever Inu-Yasha behaves badly all Kagome needs to do is say "SIT" and Inu-Yasha gets pulled to the ground (man, I wish this trick would work on my cat). Inu-Yasha still wants the Shikon Jewal for himself though so he can become a full fledged demon, however since he can't misbehave around Kagome, Inu-Yasha more or less just sort of hangs around her, becoming a nuisance real fast. Since the jewal is all powerful another demon shows up and tries to steal it, but Kagome kills the demon with a magical arrow...which in turn also shatters the jewal into thousands of tiny shards! Since the jewal shards are still powerful on their own Kagome feels like it's her responsibility to collect all the shards and put them back together again. Inu-Yasha tags along with her, seeing as he now has another chance at getting the shards for himself. This is not the real story behind "Inu-Yasha" though. While the Shikon Jewal is the object that drives the story forward, the real story comes in when a demon named Naraku enters Inu-Yasha's life, and he has his own sinister plans for the Shikon Jewal, and ends up playing a MUCH bigger role in Inu-Yasha's past then Inu-Yasha himself realizes at first! The characters in this series are fun, but they are your standard Takahashi staff.
Inu-Yasha gets a lot of his additude and pride from Ranma, Kagome gets a lot of her "tough but kind on the inside" personality from Akane. Likewise their relationship plays out just like Ranma and Akane's relationship did. This series also has a shorter then usual old man who gives the cast good advice, but usually has one character trait that annoy's the other characters (in this case they hate how much of a coward he is). The cast also includes a monk named Miroku (who's not as noble as he makes himself out to be), demon fox Shippo (who's only purpose in this series seems to be getting on Inu-Yasha's nerves), and demon slayer Sango. All of these characters have one thing in common: They all want revenge on Naraku for one reason or another! All the characters have different enough personalities that they play off of each other well, the problem is the characters never change or evolve, which makes a lot of the jokes get stale after awhile. If you read book 11 of the series and then read book 36 of the series in that order, you'll find that Takahashi is still using the same jokes and characters traits that have been in the series since the first book. Miroku is constantly hitting on women, Shippo is still getting on Inu-Yasha's nerves, and Inu-Yasha and Kagome always threaten to start a relationship, but for some reason they never quite manage to get to the point of doing so (even after they both tell each other that they love him/her).
However the lack of character development might not be noticeable at first since the story isn't that well developed either. Like "Ranma ½," the story development in "Inu-Yasha" is questionable at best. The development of the story tends to move at a slugs pace, and once we reach a certain point in the series the story just goes nowhere. While Naraku is an interesting (and down right creepy) villain when the series starts, by around book 27 he gets to be as annoying as Shippo, and you eventually you start to wish that he'd die and stay dead. I also want to know just HOW many shards of the Shikon Jewal there is, because it's just stupid that this series is more then 40 books long and Inu-Yasha and friends are STILL trying to collect all the shards of the jewal! By the time you reach book 30 you'll just want them to finish finding the jewels so that we can move on to something else. Despite all these story problems though, "Inu-Yasha" never becomes boring to the extent where we end up giving up on the series. Everything about this series is cliched, yet the action and the small revelations keep you coming back. The story may go nowhere, but every now and then a character will get a new attack, or there will be a small twist with Naraku, and the new twists (however minor they may be) are usually enough to keep us reading. I personally keep reading the series because of the action sequences.
The action in this series will most likely surprise a lot of people. Takahashi has written series with some action in them, yet she's never drawn action sequences as graphic as the stuff she draws in "Inu-Yasha." If you've only seen the show on Cartoon Network you are in for a major surprise here, as the action sequences in this series are bloody, graphic, and at times very disturbing. Arms get cut off, people get stabbed, heads fly, blood gushes, and one guy even eats his brothers heart...ON SCREEN! This is not a series for people who have weak stomachs. If it weren't for the fact that these fights were so darn interesting, I would have stopped reading the series a LONG time ago! At the end of the day the series is cliched, goes absolutely nowhere, and seems to lose focus at times, but Takahashi's story telling abilities makes sure that "Inu-Yasha" is never boring. I might recommend reading the series, however if you can find an alternative to Viz's release I highly recommend you do so. Viz's release of "Inu-Yasha" is quite appalling sometimes. The artwork is flipped, there are spelling error's in almost every book, the translation is horribly shoddy at times (sometimes being so bad that the translators translate NAMES wrong during important scene's), and the overall treatment just feels like a joke. If the release was better the grade would be higher, but I can not in good conscious recommend this series to everyone when the books are so poorly translated.
Hard-core "Inu-Yasha" fans will most likely think that I am doing nothing but tearing down their favorite series, but the truth is I'm not. I LOVE "Inu-Yasha!" I love to read the manga, I watch the TV show, and despite the absolute mess of problems the franchise has I keep coming back to the series. I am a fan of the series, but these are problems worth mentioning. The low grade at the bottom doesn't even reflect my feelings of the series itself. The reason the grade is so low is because of the lousy treatment of the books. If the treatment had been good I would have given the series a better grade. However the world is not fair, and I must give a failing grade to this series simply because I care too much about the series to recommend such poorly made books. Hopefully Viz will eventually re-release this series properly, but as it stands I can't recommend the current release. It's a shame too, but I really do think that "Inu-Yasha" is at least worth checking out. However in its current condition the series is not fit to be read.
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