Customer Reviews

Inu-Yasha 01 (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kagome is a stressed teenage schoolgirl from the present day. Inuyasha is a surly half-demon from five hundred years in the past.

Yeah, it doesn't sound likely. But this odd couple becomes the unlikely protagonists of "Inuyasha," an action-packed fantasy with plenty of romance and comedy on the sidelines. And the first volume of Rumiko Takahashi's hit manga leaps right into the action with its odd-couple characters, with solid action and some truly nasty monsters.

On Kagome's fifteenth birthday, she's suddenly pulled into a well on her family's shrine grounds -- and emerges five hundred years in the past.

After being captured by some villagers, she finds that she is the reincarnation of the venerated priestess Kikyo, who died clutching the Sacred Shikon Jewel fifty years before. As the jewel resurfaces (from inside Kagome's body), she inadvertantly wakes a powerful half-demon, Inuyasha, from the spell Kikyo used when he stole the jewel.

Inuyasha loathes Kagome on sight because she's the spitting image of her preincarnation, Kikyo. But when Kagome accidentally shatters the Jewel and sends pieces flying across Japan, she and the grudging Inuyasha have to team up to recover its shards. Unfortunately another powerful demon has set her sights on the jewel fragments -- Yura of the Hair, who uses hair like razor wire. But Kagome has fallen through the well, back to her own time -- how can she help?

Most fantasy series belong in one of two categories -- either strange things happen to the protagonist in their own time/world/dimension, or they fall down the rabbit hole (in this case, the well) into a strange place. Apparently this rule is pretty much universal, because the latter description also applies to "Inuyasha."

And Rumiko Takahashi has some fun with her own portrayal of a fantastical medieval Japan that's absolutely crawling with demons and monsters. Though the first few chapters are a bit rushed, she settles into a nice rhythm once Inuyasha and Kagome have been introduced -- complete with some nasty chase scenes, and some splattery action when our titular anti-hero rushes in to rip apart whoever's threatening Kagome.

It's grimmer material than Takahashi's previous long-running series, but fortunately she still injects some of her trademark humor into it -- such as Kagome bonking Inuyasha with a boulder, or freaking out when some villagers start worshiping her.

Inu-yasha is, at first glance, a very crabby teen boy with superhuman strength, dog ears and a tendency to say the wrong things ("Take off those clothes") anytime. On the flipside, Kagome seems a little dizzy at first (understandably, considering what happened), and is obviously in over her head. Fortunately they start working together before the end, and show some signs of making a good team despite their friction.

The first volume of "Inuyasha" has some initial wobbles, but the backdrop of a demon-infested Japan -- and the scruffy anti-hero -- show that it has plenty of promise.

I liked this book a lot. I don't have any complaints about it right now, but if I thought really hard I'm sure I could come up with something. It has humor, action, and demons. What more could you want? After reading the first volume, I had to buy the other 19 of them. I suggest InuYasha to anyone and everyone.