First impressions: So, when getting into this show, all I heard was that it’s about time travel between modern day Japan and Sengoku period Japan, half demons, pervy monks, romantic polygons, kittens that turn into a huge monsters, getting power ups with tooth swords and a villain that keeps coming back to life and summoning more monsters. Man, this show sounds like everything I ever wanted out of shounen. It seems like this’ll be the cream of the crop. What could possibly go wrong?
Story: 7/10
So, our story begins in modern day Japan, where our main character, Kagome one day falls into her old family well, after some sort of crazy monster pulled her into it. After mentally recuperating from what had just happened, she then proceeds to climb out of the well. Upon climbing out of the well, she finds herself in a forest. After walking around for awhile, she finds a mysterious looking man, with dog ears pinned to a tree. During her investigation of the area, she finds a village, and also finds out that she’s in Sengoku period Japan. She finds out that the dog eared man is a half-demon, named Inuyasha, who long ago came to the village, to get the powerful shikon jewel, but was stopped by a powerful shrine maiden, who turns out to be his ex-girlfriend. While getting used to her situation, the village comes under attack by a demon who wishes to get the shikon jewel. During the attack, Kagome frees Inuyasha, out of desperation, to battle the demon and in the battle the village nearly gets destroyed and the shikon jewel gets split into multiple fragments, that get cast all over Japan(cause apparently, that’s what happens, when you fire arrows at magic jewels, they explode and send their fragments hundreds of miles away). So, to make a long story short, the both of them decide to start a journey across Japan, to find and gather all the pieces, before they fall into evil hands.
On paper, Inuyasha is actually a very good shounen. It has the tone and it has the battles. Like most long running shounen though, it drags on for far too long and after a while, loses any sense of direction or purpose. It was quite good, for the first 30-50 episodes, there was adventure, demons slaying, samurai, good drama, actual stakes and some character development. The problem is that after that point, it played out its basic concept and the plot ended up constantly playing out the formula of “power up, chase the main villain, he escapes”. Even when it tried to add some flavor, with different characters and locations, it was still the same shit, over and over again. How many times do we need to be reminded of Inuyasha’s resurrected old girlfriend? How many times do we need to have the main villain send demons after the main cast? There is saying, that it's the journey that matters, not the destination. Fucking hell though, in Inuyasha’s case, it's the journey that kinda sucks and the destination that’s reached after way too long. Here’s idea, explore why are there no yoki living in modern day Japan, or address what's going to happen to the demon characters, when their human friends die and they decide to move on. That would’ve been ten times more interesting than what we got.
It’s time to talk about one of the shows focal points, the romance between Inuyasha and Kagome. The foundation for their relationship was built very well, which I really liked. I have to ask this question though. Does it really take 190 episodes to drive home the point that these characters are in love with one another? They could have done it in half the time. I also feel that their relationship together was way too pitch perfect for my liking and I felt it was little unnatural, I’m not sure why though.
The last thing I want to address is how insulting the ending is, on so many levels. Pretty much what happens is that after everything's been sorted and Kagome and Inuyasha are about to start their life together, Kagome, in so many words, says goodbye to Inuyasha. Inuyasha naturally questions her on why she’d do this, after confessing to him no less. She then turns around and gives the fact that she wants to finish highschool as her only reason. After this statement, she returns back to the modern day Japan, to finish high school. One two year time skip later and we see her graduating from highschool and returning back to medieval Japan, because now she has her certificate. Why do you need a certificate in medieval Japan, you're a women. It feels like some sort of forced feminist message, saying “hey kids, make sure to pursue your career and education, before your love life, even if it has no purpose to begin with.”
Characters: 7/10
Kagome, our main character is possibly one of the worse female main characters I’ve seen in a show, to date. Now, before you get triggered in the comments section, let me explain the reason why. It’s not that I dislike her character, or what she brings to the series as a whole, but what bothers me about her is that she doesn't seem to have much in the way of a personality and as a result, she comes off as a bland Mary Sue. Her personality basically comes down the fact that she's the person who wants to help many people as possible. Besides that, she seems mostly unfazed about most of the stuff she sees and goes through, which is kinda jarring, when you think about the fact that she’s in the warring states period, one of the most bloody and brutal times in all of Japanese history. This was a time when entire families were wiped out and entire cities would be set on fire, and to top it all off, you’ve got demons running around, that can level entire armies or towns, with minimal effort. She’s basically in a meat grinder and I’d think that seeing this would make her act a little cynical or maybe express some level of appreciation for the circumstances of her birth, but nope, that doesn't happen. Thankfully, she does actually develop, as her world view gradually changes, over the course of the snow, when she learns that not everything can be categorized as purely good or evil and that you can’t always make the right decision. Aside from that though, when she’s compared to the other main cast members, or even the side characters, she just comes off as bland, because there isn't much reason for why she the way she is. In contrast to Kagome though, we have Inuyasha, who I’m so thankful he’s in this show, as he makes the show work for a number of reasons. He’s a hot headed, selfish asshole, with good reason too and I love him for it. Sadly though, because of Kagome, he loses his original edge and devolves into a generic shounen protagonist.
When it comes to the side characters, most of them have decent personalities, characterization and decent development, some of my favorite examples of which being Sesshomaru, Inuyasha’s half-brother and Miroku, the pervy monk. One of the main reasons I really like Sesshomaru is because I’m a big fan of his particular type of character arc, which can also be seen with the character of Accelerator, from a certain magic index. In fact, when I think about it, I feel that Sesshomaru was the basic blueprint for accelerator, since they have very similar characteristics and both their character arcs revolve around a little girl and the main character’s actions. In contrast, the reason that I like Miroku is that he’s a pervert, who tries to tap every piece of ass he sees, while robbing people of everything that isn't nailed to the floor. Finally, it’s time for the main villain, Naraku. He’s probably both the high and low point of the series. As a main villain, he’s proactive and has a strong presence, but the problem is that he has a weak motivation, at best and is, for the most part, pretty predictable. After a point though, it becomes easy to predict what he’s gonna do and so he just becomes kinda boring.
Art: 7/10
So, at the time this came out, the animation was most likely pretty good and in fact, it still looks decent today, although it hasn't aged well. Inuyasha’s animation gives it a gritty feeling, which fits the tone and nature of the warring states period Japan, that the series takes place in. The backgrounds look alright, but nothing to write home about. As for the fights, they look pretty decent, but I wish that they didn't end with the ever so popular wind scar as often. The art style has this retro shounen feel to it, which I quite dig. I’m kinda on the fence about the character designs, because on one hand, the demons look really cool, but on the other, the humans look boring and feel more like background characters.
Sound: 6/10
I like the first opening song, but I couldn’t care less about the rest of the opening and ending songs. I think the soundtracks are decent and on point, most of the time. There isn’t much that’s worth me going out of my way to listen to, but there are some good tracks that are worth a listen. This isn’t surprising, as the OST was done by Kaoru Wada, who’s also done the OST for samurai 7. I feel that both the sub and the dub have their strong points. The dub did a very good job of capturing the personality of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, while Inuyasha’s sub version sounds like the Japanese voice actor for Goku, from dragon ball Z, which I find very bothersome to listen to. By the same token though, I feel that the sub captured Naraku better than the dub, because in the sub he feels more intimidating and scheming, which fits his character well.
Enjoyment: 6/10
So, I’m a big fan of demons, samurai and anything that involves massive amounts of action, so naturally, I did enjoy Inuyasha, to a point. While I found it to be a very interesting and an overall fun ride, wish it was shorter and maybe didn't go in circles. Maybe if it took some more liberties and mixed it up a little, I would have found it more enjoyable.
Overall: 7/10
Conclusion: I think Inuyasha is a pretty decent shounen and I recommend it to anyone who Iikes demons, time travel, Sengoku period Japan and the like. All things considered though, there are shounen that have done similar things to this show, except better. Yu yu hakusho did the whole demon and spirit world thing better and had morality ambiguity as a bonus. Fullmetal alchemist or One piece have also done the whole adventure thing better. For everything this series is good at, there is another series that’s better at it. I guess if you're new to anime, then Inuyasha is a good shounen to start with, but if you're into more mature series or want more depth, then it’s best to go somewhere else.
Special credit to my unpaid and slightly pissed editor, Lonecrit.
