Customer Reviews

Inuyasha - Origin of the Sacred Jewel (Vol. 9)

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Inu-Yasha Vol. 9 - Episodes 25, 26, 27

Inuyasha: Origin of the Sacred Jewel contains episodes 25-27 of Rumiko Takahashi's very long, and still in production at the time of this review, anime/manga series. Inuyasha ("dog-demon")is a young, brash hanyou ("half-demon") living in feudal Japan. His father was a powerful dog-demon, his mother a beautiful, high-class lady. Inuyasha wants to be a full demon. He is after the Sacred Jewel ("Shikon no Tama") that will help him achieve this.

Kagome Higurashi is a 15 year-old girl who lives in a temple with her mother, younger brother, and grandfather. Her grandfather tries to interest her in ancient stories of demons and the history of the temple, but Kagome is bored. Her attitude changes when she is pulled down a well by a female centipede-demon. Kagome is hurled into feudal Japan, where she meets Inuyasha.

Episode 25 - "Naraku's Insidious Plot" - Sango is on a mission of revenge which will surely kill her because she is so badly injured after being attacked by her little brother Kohaku. Sango wants to kill Inuyasha because she believes Naraku's story that it was the hanyou that wiped out her entire village. Naraku lends her a sacred jewel fragment to help the Demon Hunter fight her last battle.

This episode is pivotal to watch because we finally see the horrible dual nature of Naraku. Nowhere else in the series is this clarified exactly as it is here.

Episode 26 "Secret of the Jewel of Four Souls: Revealed" - One of the best Inu eps ever. This is the origin of the Shikon no Tama!!! Why and how it was created!! One of the most wonderful, beautiful, and memorable characters makes her debut here, but alas, she is never shown in the series again!!! Such a deeply touching episode. A very important secret (tearjerker) is revealed about Sango's feline demon Kilala.

Episode 27 - "The Lake of the Evil Water God" - Inuyasha and his friends battle a powerful water god to save a village and its children, whom the god is demanding as a sacrifice.

Tricked into believing that Inuyasha is responsible for destroying her village and killing all her people, Sango vows to kill him. And there's Naraku himself to deal with also. We also learn about the origin of the Sacred Jewel in the second episode. Episode 27 is a stand-alone story in which Inuyasha and his friends come across a village procession for a human sacrifice to an Evil Water God. Of course, our heroes cannot let this stand and are helped in their quest by the headman's young son.

There's a little danger starting to creep in on this show that maybe there are too many characters. Hopefully, Sango will be the last major ally to be introduced because it risks diluting the chemistry that has been built up to this point. Still, maybe it's just because I'm not used to her in the mix yet. I also enjoyed the last episode because it gives you a breather from all the deep emotions of the past few shows. Another danger that this anime runs is becoming a "monster of the week" event which is cliched and formulaic. I hope that I never feel that way about it though and that it will keep surprising me. As always, the dinky extras are here: line art and Japanese promotion ads. It seems like Viz could have done a better job in the extras department.

this is one of the best volumes i have! i love finding out about how the sacred jewel came about and i love the end. it is sooooo cool. just buy this and find out what i'm talking about!

~InuYasha Fan~

Sango joins the group in this volume, but not before evil-villain-who-must-die-horribly Naraku messess with her head and tries to make her attack Inu-Yasha. After realizing she's been duped, Sango helps the group learn the secret of the Shikon Jewel/Shikon no Tama, and the group then has their first battle with Sango on the team, as they take on a kid-eating water god, but the "god," is hiding something. A great volume, it is impossible to not feel sorry for poor Sango after Naraku kills everyone from her village. Naraku must die! Also, side note, Kelly Sheridan, who's Ukyo in the Ranma dub, Hitomi in the Escaflowne dub, and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in X-men Evolution, does Sango's English voice. Her Japanese voice actress is Hoko Kuwashima , who's also the voice of Kasumi in the Dead or Alive games. Well, the group's finally assembled! Can't wait for volume 10!

In this anime, After meeting the demon slayer called Sango, she tells the InuGumi,(Miroku,Kagome,Inuyasha,Shippo) the secret and past of the Sacred Shikon no Tama. In the three episodes, they fight a Fake Water God, whle Sango joins them on their quest of the Sacred jewel.

These three episodes (25, 26, and 27) are good but a bit disjointed. Episode 25 is the best, although as is typical you can't fully appreciate it unless you have seen the last disk. It's kind of a "part two" of a plot by the main villain, Naraku.

Episode 26 is slow and overly complicated, not to mention "lost in translation" I suspect. It adds a layer to the whole story of the Sacred Jewel that just wasn't needed imo. Instead of trying to *explain* what a "jewel of four souls" was they should have just left things open ended.

Episode 27 is one of the most disposable of the series, a detour to fight a very minor demon with no connection to the larger plot-line. About all the episode does is integrate Sango into the main group a bit, rather than having her as an outsider of the "guest star" variety.

Extras are the typical ones: line art, short japanese promos, cast list. Cover art continues the now very tired trend of (1) open-mouthed "angry" Inu Yasha, (2) open-mouthed "helpless" Kagome, and (3) one other character (this time, Sango).

In this Series, we meet one of the strongest exterminators around,Sango, her whole village destroyed by naraku,being tricked the whole time, and your only brother killed, who can bear that, but then later finds out that she was being tricked,and joins the team,along with her a cute cat demon, well looks can be decieving, when she goes into her true form, she turns in to a big cat, this series is a must have series.

Inu Yasha forever rawks!!!!!!!!!! I highly suggest buying this!!!