INUYASHA

Original title: InuYasha Characters: Inuyasha, Kagome Higurashi, Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Kikyo, Sesshomaru, Naraku, Kaede, Myoga, Jaken, Onigumo, Muso, Kirara, Kohaku, Totosai, Rin, Ah-Un, Koga, Ginta and Hakkaku, Kagura, Kanna, Demon of the Mirror, The child, Hakudoshi, Moryomaru, Byakuya Author: Rumiko Takahashi Production: Kyoto Animation, Sunrise, Yomiuri TV

Regia: Yasunao Aoki Country: Japan Year: 3 October 2009 Broadcast in Italy: 13 November 2010 Gender: Fantasy / Comedy Episodes: 167 Duration: 24 minutes Recommended age: Teenagers aged 13 to 19

The compelling and fantastic story of Inuyasha was written by the Japanese cartoonist and screenwriter Rumiko Takahashi, already famous for the series of Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, The mermaid saga, One pound gospel and above all Ranma 1 / 2 which made her deserve the nickname "manga princess".

Inuyasha's story begins with Kagome, a 15-year-old girl who lives in a Shinto temple with her father, her mother and her younger brother. In the temple there is a sacred tree and a cursed well, wrapped in a strange legend concerning the spheres of the four spirits. Just on her birthday, Kagome chasing her cat, goes to the place of the temple where the cursed well is kept and suddenly the hands of a half-woman and half-millipede monster come out of the well and drag her into a parallel world. . Kagome manages to free himself, thanks to a mysterious power that has radiated from his hands. Coming out of the well, he finds himself in a place never seen before, the temple has disappeared and in its place there are countryside and forests, while the sacred tree remains in its place. At this point Kagome meets Inuyasha, just nailed by an arrow to the sacred tree, Inuyasha is a strange individual, with long white hair, a red coat and with strange dog ears (in fact Inuyasha means "divine spirit dog") because he is actually a half demon, the son of a dog demon and a human woman. The villagers arrive at the place, looking amazed at Kagome and after tying her up they bring her in front of Kaede, sister of the deceased priestess Kikyio. Kagome looks strikingly like the priestess and Kaede recognizes in her the reincarnation of Kikyo, who died fifty years earlier. Kagome, however, is attacked by the centipede monster that had dragged her into the well, so the girl flees into the woods to save herself, arriving in near the sacred tree. Here Inuyasha begs her to free him from the arrow that nails him to the tree, in order to be able to help her, despite the men of the village and Kaede, trying to dissuade her, Kagome frees Inuyasha, who in a short time succeeds to defeat the monster. From Kagome comes the sphere of the four spirits, the object of which the monster wanted to take possession, which increases the power of the demon that comes from it. in possession. Kagome later realizes that too Inuyasha he wants to take possession of the sphere, and it is for this reason that he was imprisoned by the priestess Kikyo, but Kaede immediately keeps him at bay by formulating magical words that if spoken would have thrown him to the ground: the word in question is "a doghouse!", just like you do for a dog. The demons, however, have sensed the presence of the sphere and now try to hunt down Kagome. Kagome is kidnapped by a raven demon, who is shot down by Inuyasha, the crow however absorbs the sphere and runs away, at this point Kagome shoots an arrow and hits it, but it shatters the sphere, which is dispersed into thin air, but which continues to have its power even on a single fragment and Inuyasha manages to recover one. Between Kagome and Inuyasha initially there is no great friendship and the two always quarrel, therefore Kagome decides to return to the well to try to return to her dimension, but meets another demon called Yura who tries to kill her and steal the piece of the sphere. found by Inuyasha. Kagome manages to save herself by jumping into the well and returning to her dimension. Although in his time, kagome she can dialogue with Inuyasha through the well and the latter invites her to return to defeat together Yura, the hair demon as she is the only person able to see the path of the long hair from which she rules and binds people. Kagome is convinced by Inuyasha and together they manage to defeat the demon, discovering its power inside a magical comb and then destroying it. Later, Sesshoumaru, the prince of darkness, brother of Inuyasha, will arrive. Unlike his brother, Sesshoumaru is a complete demon and wanders in search of his father's grave in order to take possession of Tessaiga, a mythical sword capable of killing a hundred demons with a single blow. Sesshoumaru despises his brother Inuyasha as a half demon and therefore inferior to him, however he would like to meet him to find out about any possible clues.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Kagome make the acquaintance of Myoga, a nice man-flea with oriental wisdom who was the servant of Inuyasha's father, therefore he warns him of Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru is not long in arriving and captures Inuyasha, who is freed by Kagome. Thanks to the spirit of nothingness, Muonna, they learn of the place where the tomb is located. Once in the place they find the skeleton of the father and inside the body the mythical sword Tessaiga. But Sesshoumaru is rejected by a magical barrier and only Kagonme and Inuyasha can enter, only Kagome will be able to extract the sword and deliver it to Inuyasha who understands that it was intended for him, as he responds to his commands and after a heated battle he will defeat Sesshoumaru. During their journey they manage to find another fragment of the sphere, thanks to the help given to Nobunaga, a shy and clumsy boy. Then it is the turn of Shippo, a cub demon-fox that Inuyasha surprises while trying to steal the fragments of the sphere, during their rest. Shippo wants to have the fragments of the sphere to be able to avenge his father, killed by Hiten and Manten, two demons with the power to launch lightning, thanks to five fragments of the sphere. At one point Manten kidnaps Kagome fascinated by her beauty and discovers that Inuyasha is in possession of two fragments, therefore he holds Kagome hostage. The battle begins and Inuyasha fights against Hiten who is however very strong due to the fragments of the sphere. Kagome and Shippo fight against Manten, who is going to have the better of him, were it not for Inuyasha who throws Tessaiga at him and stabs him. Hiten then eats his brother Manten's heart and absorbs his energy, thus becoming even more powerful. Hiten electrocutes Kagome and Shippo, but furious Inuyasha throws himself on him using Tessaiga's scabbard, capable of absorbing lightning, the magic sword fights against Hiten's spear which eventually wins and Inuyasha defeats the terrible demon. Meanwhile, the spirit of Shippo's father had protected Kagome and her son from lightning.
After another quarrel with Inuyasha, Kagome returns to the well because she has to take the math exam in her time. Here she meets Hojo, with whom she becomes friends. But even in his time there are demons looking for the spheres and one of them tries to kill Kagome who is saved by Inuyasha. Still in her time, Kagome, while walking with her friends, meets a little soot-soiled girl who likes to mischief and who mysteriously disappears into the flames as soon as Kagome touches her. After that event, Kagome goes to the hospital to visit Satoru, a friend of her little brother, who has been in a constant state of coma for several months. This state is due to a psychologic shock suffered following the death of his sister Mayu, due to the fire in their home. In the room appears the little girl covered with soot, who tries to spite poor Satoru, Kagome understands that it is the spirit of Mayu, who wants to take revenge on Satoru for having been saved from the flames in his place, therefore tries to kill him by making him fly from the window. At that moment Inuyasha arrives and grabs him on the fly, while Tatarimokke, the spirit of the curse that brings evil children to hell, chains Mayu and takes her away. Kagome chases Tatarimokke in order to save her, if in fact the little girl calms her hatred she can purify her soul, so it happens and Mayu asks her mother for forgiveness and disappears to reach the nirvana of the children of the afterlife together with Tatarimokke.
Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo continue the search for the fragments of the sphere and come across the spider demons who try to kill a girl named Nazuna and save her. Nazuna is a girl who has been placed in the care of an elderly monk, after the death of her parents, killed by demons. Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo decide to sleep at Nazuna's house, but that night an extraordinary event happens, in fact, due to the new moon, Inuyasha loses his half-demon powers and becomes a full-fledged man, he no longer has nails sharp and the hair turns black.

He cannot therefore face the spider demons and upon their arrival he has the worst in a fight, which by biting him inject him with poison. Myoga the flea man, sucks the poison from Inuyasha's blood and saves his life. Not long after the new moon period has passed, Inuyasha regains her powers and defeats the demons. In order to get back the fragments of the sphere, the witch Urasue tries to resurrect the priestess Kikyo, stealing the ashes. Inuyasha learns the news and rushes to Urasue's lair who has failed the spell as Kikyo awakened has no soul, which is actually in Kagome because it is her reincarnation.

Once she understands this, Urasue kidnaps Kagome and through a ritual tries to get Kikyo's soul out of her. The experiment succeeds and Kikyo's soul returns to his body and meets Inuyasha again. It is immediately clear that between Kikyo and Inuyasha there was something tender, even if the priestess accuses him of his death, while Inuyasha accuses her of having nailed him to the tree with her arrow. In reality it was the demon Naraku who took the form of Inuyasha to kill Kikyo and the girl to stop Inuyasha, so as to hate each other forever. Kikyo does not believe in the story and stabs Inuyasha with an arrow. Inuyasha's scream awakens Kagome who draws the soul of kikyo to herself, while only the evil part remains that tries to hit Inuyasha and falls into an abyss. Inuyasha and Kagome meet a young monk called Miroku, who has the characteristic of falling in love very easily. The boy also has an unfinished business with the demon Naraku, as he has inflicted on his father and his generation a curse that consists in sucking up everything he possesses, despite everything he refuses Kagome's invitation to join their group to look for the fragments of the sphere and fight Naraku. He will join later, after realizing that Kagome has the property of purifying the fragments of the sphere from the polluted hands of the demons. But a dangerous alliance threatens our heroes, in fact Inuyasha's brother, Sesshoumaru, meditates revenge and joins Naraku, who provides him with a human arm (Inuyasha had cut it with Tessaiga) able to wield his father's sword and a nest of demonic insects, in exchange for the killing of Inuyasha. Sesshoumaru then arrives in the place where Inuyasha and the others are and has a violent confrontation with his brother, from whom he manages to snatch Tessaiga from him. Sesshoumaru stops Miroku's powers thanks to the insects that poison him and demonstrates to Inuyasha how to use the sword Tessaiga, after which he attacks him. Then Kagome shoots an arrow and disarms Sesshoumaru from Tessaiga Inuyasha manages to hit Sesshoumaru's arm, who, however, manages to retrieve the fragments of the sphere and deliver it to Naraku. Inuyasha seriously wounded, to protect Kagome, he brings her near the well and throwing her back in her dimension, after having stolen the pieces of the sphere from her. Later Inuyasha, having gone to Kaede, discovers who Naraku really is. It is a brigand who had been treated by Kikyo in dying and taken to a cave, but for reasons still unknown, the cave caught fire and that man named Onigumo, died in the fire. Now Onigumo wants to take revenge on Inuyasha and Kikyo and in order to possess the priestess and make the sphere evil, he had recalled thousands of demons who had fused with his soul giving rise to the demon-baboon called Naraku, formed by many tentacles that they make it look like a giant spider. During yet another fight with the demons, Shippo retrieves a piece of the sphere and takes refuge in Kagome's well.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Kagome meet Kikyo again who wants to kill Inuyasha in order to get him back forever in eternity, but jealous Kagome tries to stop him and Kikyo returns to the afterlife.
It is therefore the turn of Sango, the exterminator of demons, a girl. featuring a large boomerang, called Hiraikotsu, which she carries behind her back, which allows her to tear apart the demons she encounters. She is accompanied by a white kitten named Kirara, who can transform herself into a giant and ferocious tiger capable of flying. Sango wants to take revenge for the death of her father, her younger brother Kohaku as well as for the attempt on her life itself, but Naraku makes her believe that the culprit is actually Inuyasha, so he enlists her in order to destroy her enemy. Sango then meets Inuyasha and tries to kill him, thanks also to the strength that derives from the fragment of the sphere given to him by Naraku, but in the end the girl will understand Inuyasha's innocence from his gestures and will realize that she has been plagiarized by Naraku, the real culprit. Naraku proves to be a very tough opponent, in fact he has the ability to project his image even at great distances and fight as if he were really present, but without suffering injuries.

All characters and images of Inuyasha are copyright Rumiko Takahashi and of the right holders. they are used here for cognitive and informative purposes.