My apologies for the unannounced hiatus. This wretched winter has seemingly forced me into a sort of hibernation. Now is the time to emerge, though, and to explore new fantasy worlds with a month of isekai titles. We're starting out with one of the big ones of the 1990s, one of the landmarks of the world of shojo isekai.
INUYASHA (Sengoku Otogizoshi Inuyasha), by Rumiko Takahashi. First published in 1996 and first published in North America in 1998.
PLOT:
Kagome was an ordinary girl who was simply looking for a lost cat on her family's temple. Her search leads her to an omnious well and a demon that pulls her into hundreds of years into the past. Kagome turns out to be the descendant of a powerful priestess. She possesses the Shikon Jewel within her, which grants Kagome the power to see demons and unseal the half-demon boy Inuyasha. Now monsters of every sort are emerging to try and steal the jewel's power for themselves, and Kagoma and Inuyasha must team up if they are to survive.
STORY:
Like a lot of landmark series in American anime and manga fandom, it's tricky to look back at Inuyasha without the baggage fandom brought to it: jokes about how the show would never end, piles of Inuyasha/Sesshomaru fanfic, and endless repetitions of "KAGOME!" "INUYASHA!" That being said, I do think it's worthwhile to do so, as doing so helped me appreciate the novel qualities Rumiko Takahashi brought to this story in the first place.
The biggest thing that struck me about Inuyasha is how similar in tone it felt to some of Takahashi's earlier horror works. Those familiar with some of her spookier Rumic Theater/World tales or Mermaid's Scar will know precisely what I mean. A lot of this first volume is spent in the dark or the deep reaches of old forests and it really helps to emphasize the scariness of the demon encounters and the helplessness of those fighting them. That's not even taking into consideration the designs of the demons, which range from 'freaky yokai' to 'cute ninja girl' to "dog-eared bishie.'
As for Kagome herself, she feels very much in line with most of Takahashi's previous heroines. Spunky, a little skeptical, a little short-tempered, but possessing strength that not even she knew about. In this case it's a little more literal than normal, as there's a bit of a mini-arc in this volume as Kagome gains a greater awareness of her spiritual power and how it ties into her family legacy. If there's one thing that feels TOO familiar, though, it's her relationship with the titular Inuyasha.
While their relationship is not a romantic one yet, there's a LOT of echoes of Ranma and Akane in their dynamic. That means many a scene where Inuyasha says something lunkheaded and Kagome gets pissed. It's a dynamic that was already getting a bit exhausted, as Takahashi had been writing some variation on it for nearly two decades previous to this first volume. There's enough going on here that it doesn't bog things down yet, but it's the one element that threatens to bog this series down with the same aimless, rote rom-com formula that affected many a Takahashi manga before it.
ART:
Takahashi's art is in full flourish here. Her character designs are as good as ever, as is her knack for crisp, cleanly laid-out fights and dynamic panel composition. There's definitely a visual distinction between the modern world and the historical one. The modern one is flatly lit and barely shaded, while the well and the world that lies beyond it is often shadowy and dark. It's a subtle distinction, but one that helps to subconsciously distinguish the shift between worlds.
RATING:
While there are some signs of the narrative exhaustion to come, Inuyasha's debut is compelling. It's a novel, spooky take on the shojo isekai formula, and it's easy to see why this became such a sensation in the first place.
This series is published by Viz. This series is complete in Japan with 56 volumes available. All volumes have been published and are currently in print.
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