Inuyasha

With Pokemon, Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh gracing the small screen, it has become difficult to take Japanese Anime seriously. Thankfully, Cartoon Network has put a block of Japan's finest in their red-eye time slot, spearheaded by Inuyasha.

The general gist of the plot is Kagome, a modern schoolgirl, winds up in feudal times and must help a half-demon(Inyasha) recover the shards of a jewel of ultimate power.

One might say that Inuyasha combines the best of both Shonen and Shojo stylings. The world of feudal Japan is laced with ghosts, demons and other critters who roar, slash, dash, slice, splat and snarl, and at least one of these beasts duke it out with the title character per episode. On the other hand, there is romance, guilt, past betrayals and secrets to be discovered, not to mention sight gags and running jokes.

The visual quality is a step above pocket monsters and moon princesses as well. The show is thankfully devoid of giant sweat-drops, fountain tears and misplaced mouths.

It takes patience to watch the series, with 100+ episodes and long-running character development, it would take a fortune of DVD purchases or steadfast loyalty to the television at 1:00 am (as of this writing)to get the entire story down.

But even so, I highly recommend this show to anybody yearning for more than just flaming mesomorphs and pocket monsters.

You know a series has to be good when you fall in love with a

"flawed" main character, especially an animated one (the only

other time this has happened was Vegeta from DBZ). I've only

seen the English dub on Adult Swim, but it really seems that

Richard Cox and Inuyasha the character were a perfect match; the

voice-acting is one of the biggest draws.

As for the show itself, anyone who's a fan of Buffy the Vampire

Slayer and Angel will love this. The storyline about an ancient half- man/half-demon and a young modern girl does have that base

parallel to Buffy and Angel, as well as incredibly good storytelling

that defies just as many genres. But from there it goes off on its

own particular mythologic twists and turns that make it so unique

and powerful. After every 24 minute episode I'm amazed at how

much has been accomplished and developed, all while giving a

fair balance to the cast of characters, all sharply-delineated and

possessing their own unique appeal. The scoring is equally

wonderful and often difficult to get out of your mind.

All in all, who cares about gritty or anything near that when for once

in a long time you can get swept up in the romance and fantasy

and drama of it all? This is a rare series, and one bound to get

rarer, particularly when all the networks (American at least) seem

to care about these days are reality shows or "realistic" dramas

uninterested in strong character-based plot developments. Anime

seems to be one of the last realms where you can find good

stories told exceedingly well with the emphasis where it should

always be, on the characters; that there's action, adventure,

romance, drama, or comedy is merely secondary.

It's a shame that viewers outside of Asia tend to shun anime as "kid's stuff". Though the Inuyasha anime series seems to be directed at a predominantly teen aged audience even in Japan, Rumiko Takahashi is a master storyteller and Inuyasha nonetheless appeals to people of all different ages, genders and backgrounds. Nobody spins a tale like Takahashi and Inuyasha is a brilliant example of her skill. Weaving a complex storyline interspersed with action, fantasy, the innocence of young love, and a cast of endearing though fallible characters, Inuyasha is a rich fantasy tale drawn from Japanese mythology and set in feudal Japan. Names and references to actual Japanese historical and mythological characters interwoven into the story gives this series added texture and richness not readily found in most graphic novels. Takahashi lightens the serious tone at times with uniquely Takahashi humor (often imitated, never duplicated) and creates credible, flawed characters whose shortcomings become endearing over time. If the animation is too childish for you, try reading the original graphic novel series, which is even more outstanding since the anime doesn't do Takahashi's comic timing any justice. Strongly recommended to those who enjoy a rich, entertaining fantasy tale.

Kagome, a modern girl from Tokyo, accidentally finds a portal which leads her to the medieval Japan where she meets the half-demon Inuyasha. She decides to help him find a magic crystal and fight the evil demon Naraku...

"Inuyasha" is an anime I was 95 % sure it wouldn't work, but it did. With it's virtuous mix of romance, comedy, action, adventure, fantasy and horror (causing some of it's episodes to be censored in some countries) this is simply a great show that sucked me in. Although it's too long (the only major flaw, since the 160 episodes watered down the story) and has some weak episodes, "Inuyasha" is nothing short of brilliant, and it seems it's characters will never become boring: from Miroku, who is always touching woman's butts and asking them if they will have a baby with him up to Kagome who is trying to maintain her good grades in school while fighting in medieval Japan. This is what "Dragonball" should have been, but wasn't. Also, some sequences stand out:

1) Sesshomaru, the bad guy, was exhausted in the woods. Rin, a little orphan girl, saw him and wanted to help him. She went to her village to get him some food but the cruel villager's beat her up. She still managed to get Sesshmoaru some food but he declined. Yet he asked her where she got those bruises and she was happy he noticed her effort. Later on Rin was killed in the forest and Sesshomaru accidentally found her dead body. After a little thinking he took his magic sword and, despite being evil, brought her back to life. From there on, they had a mutual bond.

2) In the episode with those demon bats who terrorized a village a young mother gave birth to a half-demon bat girl, Shiori. Shiori was molested by "normal", human kids, who kicked her. Before she entered her house she wiped away her tears and pretended to be happy so that her mother wouldn't notice she couldn't fit in.

3) When Kagome finds out Inuyasha is alive she runs towards him, passing by Kouga, all the while her tears are falling on his sad face.

These situations stand out because they look as if taken from real life. I know I will never forget at least those three precious moments mentioned above. After these very emotional and powerful scenes one might ask yourself if the "Inuyasha" authors are not making this for commercial sake but for real, for a deeper statement and inter sociological and racial messages.

Grade: 9/10

This is a rather complex series. It has love, sex, action, horror, drama. It has a good plot and believable characters. The emotions are nicely portrayed, even when it's silly Japanese sex humor. This is one of the rare stories where evil really corrupts and is cunning and elusive rather than just big strong dumb creatures.

Even if it has some characteristics of soap opera, it goes well beyond that, as the animation and the plot go very well together. I am hooked already and I am barely in the middle of the second season. In a week or so I will probably cry in anger for the lack of more episodes, but hey, that's life.