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InuYasha  also romanized as Inuyasha, full title InuYasha, A Feudal Fairy Tale  is a popular manga series written by Rumiko Takahashi. The story centers around a time traveling middle school student and her friends (a half-demon, a lecherous monk, a young fox demon, a demon slayer, and her nekomata companion) in the Sengoku Period who seek to restore the Shikon no Tama and keep it out of the hands of the evil Naraku.

The series is named after one of the main characters, InuYasha. The name "InuYasha" means "dog spirit". Inu is a Japanese word meaning "dog". Yasha is a Buddhism-related word meaning "spirit". Otherwise his name would be "Inuyokai". "Yokai" means demon.

Plot overview

The story begins in feudal Japan with InuYasha, a hanyō stealing the Jewel of Four Souls a jewel that can increase anyone's powers enormously, from a village. He doesn't get far before Kikyo, the young miko of the village shoots InuYasha with a sacred arrow, sealing him forever to the Sacred Tree (Goshinboku). Mortally wounded, Kikyo tells her younger sister, Kaede, to burn the jewel with her remains to keep 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 Shinto shrine to retrieve her cat, Buyo, and a centipede demon bursts forth and pulls her into the well. Kagome miraculously fends off the demon and emerges from the well in the Sengoku period of Japan.

Not knowing where she is, Kagome wanders around a forest near the well. She spots the Sacred Tree off in the distance and proceeds to towards it. When she reaches it 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. And in a battle against a carrion-crow 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 monk, and Sango, a demon-slayer. The group often encounters InuYasha's brother Sesshomaru, Naraku who tricked Kikyo and InuYasha into turning against each other, and Koga, a wolf demon in love with Kagome and who hates InuYasha and Naraku.

Characters

• Kagome Higurashi Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese), Moneca Stori (English)
  Kagome is a 15 year-old 9th grade student. She is the reincarnation of Kikyo, a priestess (miko) who died 50 years before the time Kagome first emerges from the Bone Eater's Well in the Feudal era. Because of this Kagome has powerful spiritual powers (miko powers) herself and can even sense jewel shards. Kagome can be extremely sweet, but can also become very dangerous when provoked. InuYasha wears a special bead necklace (known as the Beads of Subjugation) which only responds to Kagome's command: when she yells "Sit!" ("Osuwari!") (Often "Sit, boy!" in the dub). At this, InuYasha is thrown to the ground. The necklace was placed upon him by Kaede due to his dangerous attitude when he was unsealed.

• InuYasha Voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese), Richard Ian Cox (English)
  InuYasha is a half-demon ("hanyō" in Japanese), the product of an inu-yōkai (dog demon) and a human. He wields the Tessaiga (pronounced "Tetsaiga" and spelled "Tetsusaiga" in the English dub), 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 demon 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 Voiced by: Kōji Tsujitani (Japanese), Kirby Morrow (English)
  A Buddhist "houshi," or 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 (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 also eventually proposes to Sango, though this does little to curb his flirtations with other women.

• Sango  Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (Japanese), Kelly Sheridan (English)
  A yōkai slayer ("yōkai taijiya") who hails from a village of professional yōkai slayers. The only member of InuYasha's group to have no supernatural powers, Sango instead 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  Voiced by: Kumiko Watanabe (Japanese), Jillian Michaels (actress) (English)
  A young orphan kitsune (fox yōkai) 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 telltale 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 Voiced by: Tarako Isono
  Sango's faithful nekomata; light-tan colored fur, with black stripes on each of her bushy tails (she has two) near the tip, and black-tipped paws. Also called Kilala (pronounced "Kee-Lah-Lah") in the English dub, but spelled Kirara. 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.

Anime

The InuYasha anime series spanned 167 episodes, and was broadcast across Japan by the anime satellite television network, Animax, who have also aired the series across its English-language network in South Asia (being the first network to fully broadcast the series in the English language) and also across its networks in East Asia, Yomiuri TV and Nippon Television. The series ended on September 13, 2004.

The anime is licensed in North America by Viz and ShoPro Entertainment, and the actual dubbing is done by the The Ocean Group.

InuYasha was first broadcast in the United States on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on August 31, 2002. The series later premiered on Canadian television screens on YTV on September 5, 2003.

InuYasha is now also shown on Cartoon Network's Latin American incarnation, Cartoon Network LA. In Latin America, it is shown dubbed in Spanish and in Portuguese (Brazil or with SAP in other countries). Cartoon Network LA can be seen in many countries south of the United States, as well as some cruise ships in the Caribbean. It is unknown if the last 7 episodes will air dubbed in the region.

At one point in Latin America, new episodes of InuYasha were airing twice a day, 5 times a week, and reruns were being aired Saturday night - 5 episodes in two hours. This is why the series concluded much faster than in the United States. As of December 2006, InuYasha is in rotation on the network.

In the United States, the final episode of InuYasha aired on October 27, 2006. The series started its second run on January 1, 2007 (The second run meaning Adult Swim has begun from episode 1 again, showing 8 episodes a week, twice a day from Monday to Thursday). This second run, however, despite skipping over episodes 73-80 for reasons that have not yet been made clear, ended on May 18, 2007 and a third run has started in the same fashion.

In Canada, YTV's Bionix programming block aired the final episode on December 1, 2006. On December 8, 2006, YTV's Bionix began airing reruns of InuYasha, starting with episode 105 "The Ghastly Steel Machine" and the consecutive episodes after it, instead of beginning from the first episode.

InuYasha was dubbed in Mandarin and hosted on Xing Kong, a Taiwanese TV Channel. As of December 2006, InuYasha is aired in Singapore on Arts Central with viewers being able to select between Chinese or Japanese dialogue, three times a week from Wednesdays to Fridays at 11 p.m. (Singapore time). InuYasha also was dubbed in Bahasa Melayu for ntv7. The show is aired every Friday at 7:30 p.m.

On April 16, 2007, the first 12 InuYasha episodes were released on DVD in the UK.

Movies

Four movies, which continued the anime plot, have been released. The first movie, InuYasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time was released on December 16, 2001 in Japan with InuYasha the Movie: Fire on the Mystic Island being the last movie to be released; on December 23, 2004 in Japan. The fourth movie was released three months after the series finale of InuYasha in Japan. As of 2007, there are no plans for a fifth movie.

Growth and popularity

InuYasha is fairly popular in the Canadian internet community. According to Google, InuYasha was the most searched for term on their search engine in Canada, in 2004. InuYasha was also the third most popular searched for term in Canada in all of 2003.

Leaping onto American TVs on August 31, 2002, InuYasha made its debut in Cartoon Network's Saturday Adult Swim Block. American fans loved it and the show's rapid rise in popularity quickly pushed it to air four nights a week.

According to Viz, the release of the feature film, InuYasha: Affections Touching Across Time on DVD has sold over 30,000 units to-date and has occupied the number one spot on Nielsen Videoscan’s Anime Rankings for three consecutive weeks. As a series overall, more than 800,000 DVDs of the InuYasha series have been sold since March 2003.

On the literary side, InuYasha graphic novels also continue to show strong sales numbers. Volume 19 of the InuYasha manga series has been ranked Number 3 on Nielsen Bookscan’s Graphic Novel Top 50 List for the week ending October 3, 2004, and Volume 1 is at Number 18 in its 77th straight week on top, confirming a growing interest among new fans.