InuYasha, InuYa, full title InuYasha, a Feudal Fairy Tale (Sengoku Otogi Zōshi InuYasha) (also romanized as Inuyasha), is a popular manga series created in Japan with an anime adaptation. Written and illustrated by Japanese manga artist Rumiko Takahashi, the story centers around a time-traveling middle school student, a half-demon, a lecherous monk, a young fox demon, a demon slayer, and a nekomata during the Sengoku period who seek to restore the Jewel of Four Souls (Shikon no Tama) and to keep it out of the hands of the evil Naraku. This series also displays the hardships and chaos in that Japanese era.
The manga was adapted into a 167 episode anime series directed by Masashi Ikeda (episodes 1 to 44) and Yasunao Aoki (44 onwards) and produced by Sunrise. The anime first aired on Yomiuri TV in Japan from 16 October 2000 to 13 September 2004.
The television run of the anime ceased without a conclusion to the
story. As of September 2007, the manga is still being released in Japan.
The story begins in Feudal Japan with InuYasha, a hanyo stealing the Shikon no Tama, a jewel that can increase anyone's powers enormously, from a village. He does not get far before Kikyo, the young miko of the village, shoots InuYasha with a sacred arrow, sealing him forever to Goshinboku, a tree 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 wrong hands.
In modern Tokyo, a junior high-school girl named Kagome Higurashi is on her way to school. She stops in the well house of her family's Shinto shrine to retrieve her cat, Buyo, when a centipede demon bursts forth and pulls her into the Sengoku period of Japan.
Not knowing where she is, Kagome wanders around a forest near the well.
She spots Goshinboku off in the distance and proceeds towards it. When
she reaches the tree, she finds InuYasha, who is still sealed with an
arrow to the tree, asleep. Villagers seize her and take her to the old
miko, Kaede. Recognizing that Kagome is the re-incarnation of her
sister Kikyo, Kaede tells the story of Kikyo and InuYasha.
The centipede attacks again, and Kagome is forced to release
InuYasha to kill it. After defeating the centipede, in order to prevent
InuYasha from taking the Jewel of Four Souls, Kaede casts magical prayer beads around InuYasha's neck so Kagome can subdue him.
Then the jewel attracts more demons. In a battle against a carrion crow demon, the jewel is shattered into numerous shards.
Kagome and InuYasha set out to collect the shards and restore the Jewel of Four Souls. Along the way they befriend Shippo, a fox demon, Miroku, a cursed monk, and Sango,
a demon-slayer whose brother was tricked into slaughtering the rest of
their village. The group often encounters: InuYasha's older
half-brother, Sesshomaru; Naraku
who tricked Kikyo and InuYasha into turning against each other; Kikyo
who was brought back from the grave with part of Kagome's soul; and a
wolf demon, Koga, who is in love with Kagome and wants to make her "his woman".
Characters
- Kagome Higurashi ( Higurashi Kagome) Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese), Moneca Stori (English)
- Kagome is a 15 year-old 9th grade student. She is the reincarnation of Kikyo, a miko who died 50 years before the time Kagome first emerges from the Bone Eater's Well in the Sengoku Jidai.
Because of this Kagome has powerful spiritual powers herself and can
even sense the Shikon no Tama. Kagome can be extremely sweet, but can
also become very dangerous when provoked. InuYasha wears a special bead necklace which only responds to Kagome's command: when she yells "Sit!".
At this, InuYasha is thrown to the ground. The necklace was placed upon
him by Kaede because he was threatening to kill Kagome if she did not
give the jewel to him.
- (from the movie The Castle Beyond The Looking Glass)
- InuYasha (犬夜叉, InuYasha?) Voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese), Richard Ian Cox (English)
- InuYasha is a hanyō, the product of an inu-yōkai (犬妖怪, inu-yōkai? dog demon) and a human. He wields the Tessaiga,[3]
a supernatural sword made from one of his deceased father's fangs. This
sword, when properly wielded, can destroy one hundred demons with a
single swing. InuYasha can quickly recover from injuries which would be
fatal for any average human, because of his demonic heritage. On the
night of the new moon
each month, InuYasha will change into a normal human with black hair,
brown eyes, and loses his yokai power during this time. InuYasha was
bound to Goshinboku by Kikyo's arrow for fifty years until Kagome freed him.
- Miroku (弥勒, Miroku?) Voiced by: Kōji Tsujitani (Japanese), Kirby Morrow (English)
- A Buddhist "hōshi" (low-ranking, itinerant monk), Miroku traveled the countryside performing services such as exorcisms and yōkai exterminations to earn his living. He suffers from a hereditary
curse originally inflicted upon his grandfather Miyatsu (also a
Buddhist monk) by Naraku. The curse created a hole in his hand that
became a kazaana (風洞, kazaana? air void or "wind tunnel")
which sucks in anything not nailed down, regardless of mass. However,
absorbing poisons harms him, a fact Naraku takes advantage of by
creating highly poisonous insects whose presence prevents Miroku from
using his kazāna on Naraku or his allies. Miroku uses the kazāna as a
powerful weapon against yōkai, but if the curse is not broken (by
defeating Naraku), it will grow too large to control and consume Miroku
himself. Miroku is a talented con artist who does not hesitate to
invent fictitious supernatural menaces which he can then offer to
combat in return for food and shelter, and he has a distinct weakness
for pretty single women. He makes a point of asking every attractive
woman he meets if she will bear his child, and he habitually strokes
the buttocks of attractive women. He eventually proposes to Sango,
though this does little to curb his flirtations with other women.
- Sango (珊瑚, Sango?) Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (Japanese), Kelly Sheridan (English)
- A "yōkai taijiya" (demon slayer) who hails from a village of professional yōkai slayers. Sango wields the Hiraikotsu, a massive boomerang
made of yōkai bones, in addition to a broad repertoire of tools and
tricks for battling yōkai. Sango seeks revenge against Naraku for the
death of her family and her entire village. In addition, Sango seeks to
rescue her brother Kohaku from Naraku's influence and somehow save his
life, even though Kohaku's life is tied to the jewel shard embedded in
his back. She also eventually falls for Miroku. Although everyone but
InuYasha noticed, she never wanted to admit it. Her interest was
manifested by hitting Miroku when he flirted with other single women.
- Shippo (七宝, Shippō?) Voiced by: Kumiko Watanabe (Japanese), Jillian Michaels (English)
- A young orphan kitsune
whose father was killed by the Thunder Brothers, Hiten and Manten, and
the first character in the story to join InuYasha and Kagome in their
travels as a group. Shippo can shapeshift, but his forms are temporary,
often incomplete and ineffective, and he is usually given away by his
tail. His other noteworthy abilities illusionary tricks with toys like
his giant spinning top attack, using his race's notable fox fire magic,
and making things like leaves or himself multiply. He tends to be
naively observant and often makes pointed and cheeky comments directed
towards InuYasha, earning him a retaliatory bonk on the head for his
unsolicited "advice".
- Kirara (雲母, Kirara?) Voiced by: Tarako Isono
- Sango's faithful nekomata; Kirara [4]
has light-tan colored fur, with black stripes on each of her two bushy
tails near the tip, and black-tipped paws. Kirara can change between
two forms, a ferocious yōkai the size of a lion with the ability to
fly, and a cute little kitten. Sango, Miroku, and Shippo often use
Kirara's flying ability as transportation in order to keep up with
InuYasha.