- For the anime character, see InuYasha (character)
InuYasha (Japanese: 犬夜叉, inu "dog" + yasha "demon" from Japanese yasha, derived from masculine Sanskrit yaksha, "yasha" is also Japanese for "forest spirit" ) is a long-running manga and anime series by Rumiko Takahashi (creator of Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma ½, and others). The full title is 戦国お伽草子ー犬夜叉 (in Rōmaji: Sengoku o-togi zōshi InuYasha), which roughly translates to InuYasha, a Feudal Fairy Tale.
Overview
InuYasha is an action/adventure anime with elements of romance and comedy. Kagome Higurashi is an ordinary girl who is somehow pulled into an old well at her family's Shinto shrine by a mysterious force. A demon claims that Kagome possesses the Shikon Jewel and attempts to seize it. The girl fights back and when she climbs out, she finds herself in feudal Japan, where both humans and demons reside.
She is quickly recognized as the reincarnation of the priestess Kikyo by Kaede, an elderly priestess who happens to be Kikyo's younger sister. Demons are immediately drawn to Kagome and she flees into the forest to save the villagers who have taken her in. Her presence causes a strange boy pinned to an sacred tree by an arrow to awake. He is Inuyasha, a half-demon and recognizes Kagome as Kikyo, the priestess who sealed Inuyasha to the tree. In order to combat the demons, despite Kaede's warnings, Kagome frees Inuyasha.
However, a demon manages to attack Kagome and remove an object from Kagome's body, the Shikon Jewel. While the demon is easily destroyed, it is Kagome's duty to protect the jewel from both demons and corrupt humans who seek to use it to gain power - including Inuyasha who desires to use the jewel to become a complete demon.
However, when the jewel is shattered and Kagome and Inuyasha must team up to recover the shards before they get into the wrong hands. While they gain valuable allies along the way in the monk Miroku, demon exterminator Sango, and fox-demon Shippo, they find adversaries in Inuyasha's older brother Sesshomaru, a resurrected Kikyo, and the malicious demon Naraku.
Characters
- Kagome Higurashi — The female protagonist and a third year middle school student. She entrances many of the male characters with her beauty and innocence. Kagome is claimed to be the reincarnation of Kikyo. She loves Inuyasha.
- InuYasha — The male protagonist, a hybrid of a dog demon and a human. InuYasha loves both Kikyo and Kagome.
Japanese version of
InuYasha Volume 1
Supporting cast
Inuyasha and Kagome's Companions
- Miroku — A lecherous Buddhist monk who suffers from a bizarre blood curse that was visited on his grandfather by Naraku. This curse created a gaping hole in Miroku's right hand that sucks in anything, an attribute that Miroku takes advantage of throughout the series. This hole is called Kazanna (windtunnel). Unfortunately, for Miroku, if Kazanna absorbs Naraku's large, poisonous bees, he becomes poisoned himself. It is said that If it is not removed by defeating Naraku, then the Kazanna will one day absorb Miroku himself.
- Sango — The strongest of all Demon Slayers and the love interest of Miroku. She wields Hiraikotsu, which is a heavy boomerang big enough for her to carry on her back.
- Shippo — An orphaned young fox demon whose father was killed by the thunder brothers. Shippo can shapeshift, but most of his forms look ridiculous and when he does assume a good form, he retains his tail. He is the love interest of many girls throughout the series.
- Kirara — Sango's faithful, two-tailed cat-demon. Also called Kilala. Kirara can change between two forms, a ferocious yokai the size of a lion and a cute little kitten.
Other Major Supporting Characters
- Kikyo — A dead priestess who loved InuYasha. She was brought back to life by the ogress Urasue.
- Shinidamachu — Kikyo's lesser demons that collect souls of the dead to sustain her life. Commonly just called "soul collectors" by fans.
- Sesshomaru — InuYasha's callous and tenebrous older brother. Unlike Inuyasha, Sesshomaru is a full demon. He is accompanied by An and Un, a two headed dragon-type demon. Sesshomaru is jealous of InuYasha because he inherited their father's fang Tetsusaiga and Sesshomaru did not.
- Jaken — A demon who is Sesshomaru's loyal but weak kappa servant, a comical character.
- Rin — An orphaned girl who was rescued by Sesshomaru and tags along with him and Jaken.
- Kohaku — Sango's younger brother who is under Naraku's thrall; he eventually regains his memory. Sango believes he has been killed on a mission.
- Koga — The young leader of a wolf demon tribe, Koga wishes to avenge his fallen comrades. In addition to thinking highly of himself, he is in love with Kagome. He often calls her "his woman", which always makes InuYasha angry and possessive over Kagome.
- Band of Seven — Seven mercenaries who where resurrected by Naraku to do his bidding. Members include Bankotsu (leader, he carries the huge Banryu sword), Renkotsu (spits fire), Ginkotsu (listens to Renkotsu's orders, has robot metal parts for weapons), Kyokotsu (large and stupid, uses size and body as weapon), Mukotsu (fat, makes poisons and gases), Suikotsu (he was rewoken and tried to become an innocent man, but the evil in him eventually was rewoken. Uses metal claws as weapon), and Jakotsu (a man with a large twisting blade, he is in love with Inuyasha, and is homosexual).
Naraku and his Detachments
- Naraku — The main antagonist, Naraku originated from a bandit named Onigumo. Naraku deceives everyone to get what he wants, and after hiding in Mount Hakurei, he becomes a full demon.
- Kanna — The first detachment of Naraku, she is a demon who appears to be a pale little girl with white hair and clothing. She has the power to steal souls with her mirror.
- Byakuya - He is Naraku's latest detachment, meant to replace Kagura. He is loyal to Naraku unlike his last few detachments, and has an incredible power of creating illusions. He travels around on a giant origami paper crane.
- Kagura — A wind sorceress, created as the second detachment from Naraku. Kagura secretly plotted to kill Naraku, only to be killed by him through trickery.
- Akago — Naraku's heart and sixth detachment, he is a baby that can possess anyone with darkness in their heart. His main goal is to control Kagome's mind by finding pain, anger, or jealousy within her heart, and use her abilities to find the remaining shards of the Shikon jewel.
- Hakudoshi — Created from Akago's body, he was Entei's master and looks like a 7-year-old child. Like Naraku, his heart is not inside his body, so he is able to endlessly regenerate himself. Created as seventh detachment of Naraku.
- Moryomaru — One of Naraku's enemies. Due to his telepathic powers, both Kagura and Kohaku suspect he is Akago. He is a 100-foot monster with a human shape, and can shoot blasts of energy from his arm. He was originally a soulless puppet created by Hakudoshi.
- Goshinki — The third detachment from Naraku who was slain by InuYasha's full-demon form. His fangs were used to make Sesshomaru's second sword, the Tokijin.
- Juromaru and Kageromaru — The fourth & fifth detachments of Naraku. Both were slain soon after they were released.
- Muso — The reincarnation of the soul of Onigumo that was expunged from Naraku's body. He was absorbed back into Naraku after he attempted to defeat him.
Reoccuring Supporting Characters
- Kaede — A priestess and sister of Kikyo who protected the village in the fifty years after her sister's death. She is the first to recognize Kagome as the reincarnation of her sister.
- Myoga — A flea who is InuYasha's source of information. He usually runs away from dangerous situations, a disadvantage to InuYasha.
- Totosai — An elderly blacksmith who forged the Tetsusaiga and the Tenseiga.
- Hachi — A congenial shape-shifting yokai who has befriended Miroku. Hachi's natural appearance is a Tanuki Youkai.
- Kagome's family ( Mrs Higurashi, Grandpa, Sota Higurashi) - Consisting of her mother, grandfather, and younger brother, Sota. They are the only ones aware of Kagome's double life and often cover for her while she's in Inuyasha's world. Her mother takes Kagome's dimension shifting all in a stride and makes sure her daughter gets all the supplies she needs; Sota collects Kagome's homework from school and admires Inuyasha; Grandpa is a shrine keeper and thinks of all sorts of bizarre excuses as to why Kagome is not in school.
- Kagome's friends - Kagome's friends consist of three girls; Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi, who are usually concerned about Kagome's well being, try to get her to go out with Hojo, and want to know about Kagome's secret incredibly jealous boyfriend (that is, Inuyasha).
- Hojo - A boy in love with Kagome in the modern era, he is either tenacious or really thick as he is unaware of how Kagome really feels about him. He often gives her health related gifts because of her many "sicknesses" from his family's health food store. Kagome later meets Hojo's ancestor, Hojo Akitoki, in Inuyasha's time; both descendant and ancestor are more alike in personality and appearence than either will ever know.
Other Characters of Note
- Midoriko — A priestess of great spiritual power from many centuries before the Sengoku period. Her soul was locked in battle with a demon's soul inside the Shikon Jewel.
- Tsubaki — A dark priestess who made a deal with a demon to retain her youth and beauty. She met her end when Naraku lured her to do his bidding with the almost complete Shikon Jewel.
- Entei — A demon horse who serves only the most powerful demon.
- Kocho and Asuka — Kikyo's shikigami that summon Kagome when Kikyo needs to be purified of Naraku's evil and act as messengers to InuYasha when Kikyo wants to speak to him. Both are powerful and capable of erecting barriers all by themselves.
- Goryomaru — A monk who had his arm devoured by a demon. He tries to kill Kagura, only to have his head cut off by Hakudoshi.
- Ayame — A female wolf demon whom Koga promised to marry when he rescued her from certain death. Koga eventually learns to love her. Ayame only appears in the anime.
Seasons
- Season 1: 1-27
- Season 2: 28-54
- Season 3: 55-81
- Season 4: 82-99
- Season 5: 100-126
- Season 6: 127-159
- Season 7: 160-167
Cameo appearances
Jimmy Kudo (Shin'ichi Kudo) and Rachel Moore (Ran Mori) of Case Closed (Detective Conan) make a cameo appearance in episode 128. Detective Conan is published on Shonen Sunday along with InuYasha.
Also in the episode when Kagome's younger brother Sota falls in love, Kagome decides to help him overcome his fear of asking her out by constantly cheering him on. She gets her family to scream "Banzai!" and dresses him in the outfit that Conan Edogawa (an alias of Jimmy Kudo) often wears. At the end of the last episode of the series, Sota, still in his Case Closed outfit, is seen with his girlfriend at the park.
Distributors
Sunrise Ltd. and Columbia TriStar Television own the Japanese copyrights. VIZ Media holds the English copyrights.
See also
Notes
- ^ Tessaiga is called Tetsusaiga in the English language versions of InuYasha that are produced by Viz. For more information about the difference in terminology, see Tessaiga.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Japanese sites
English sites