| | InuYasha (2000) The story begins with a dog-like half-demon named InuYasha attacking a village in feudal Japan. He laughs in triumph and holds in his hand a jewel called the Shikon Jewel. His triumph is short lived when a young priestess named Kikyo shoots InuYasha with an arrow, putting him into an enchanted sleep. Kikyo, mortally wounded, tells her younger sister, Kaede, to burn the jewel with her remains to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Later we learn that Naraku used trickery to get Kikyo and InuYasha to become enemies in hopes of tainting the jewel with malice before acquiring for himself. Fast forward to modern Tokyo, a junior high-school girl named Kagome Higurashi who strongly resembles Kikyo is introduced. On her way to school on her fifteenth birthday, she heads to the covered well on the family property (which happens to be a Shinto shrine). She does this to retrieve her cat, Buyo, from the well, since her brother was afraid to go inside. When she approaches the well a centipede demon bursts from the well and grabs her. The demon claims that Kagome possesses the Jewel of the Four Souls (Shikon no Tama) and attempts to seize it. When the demon is driven off, the very confused Kagome emerges in the Sengoku period of Japan. Kagome wanders into a colossal forest looking for landmarks that she may recognize. She spots the Sacred Tree off in the distance and proceeds to run towards it, where she finds InuYasha, who is still sealed with an arrow to the tree, asleep. Villagers seize her and take her to a nearby village where she meets the old miko (Shinto shrine maiden), who is actually Kaede. She recognizes that Kagome is the re-incarnation of Kaede's sister Kikyo. Kaede relates the story to Kagome. It is later shown that InuYasha had a relationship with the priestess Kikyo and it was not he that tried to steal the jewel but Naraku, an evil character bent on destroying Kikyo, InuYasha, and many other people. The centipede attacks again and Kagome is forced to release InuYasha to kill it. After destroying the centipede, InuYasha attempts to take the Shikon Jewel. However, when a set of magical prayer beads is cast onto his neck by Kaede, Kagome finds that she is able to master him by saying a "control" word. This is not unlike the system of control words used in modern dog-training. Amusingly enough, Kagome chooses the word phrase "Sit Down, Boy", which makes InuYasha land at Kagome's feet no matter what he is doing, or in what position he is in. Any combination of the original phrase spoken by Kagome has the same effect. The arrival of the jewel attracts more greedy demons, however, and one known as a carrion-crow takes it and eats it. InuYasha rips off the demon's leg, but is unable to fully kill it. Kagome ties the leg to an arrow and shoots it at the demon, since the jewel enables the crow demon to heal, meaning that the leg will return to it, taking the arrow with it. The plan works, but the jewel is shattered into hundreds of shards in the process. Later, InuYasha must fight his half brother Sesshomaru because he wants to kill InuYasha for their father's sword, Tessaiga (Tetsusaiga in the English dub), which turns out to only work for InuYasha and only when he uses it to defend mortals (InuYasha's mother was a mortal woman and the blade was made by his demon father to protect her). Soon after, Sesshomaru realizes that Tessaiga is unattainable, and adopts Rin, a young girl. When she is killed by a wolf pack, Sesshomaru uses his own sword Tenseiga, which has special healing powers, to bring her back to life.
| Also Known As : | | * InuYasha, A Feudal Fairy Tale (Complete Title) | | * Sengoku Otogi Zōshi InuYasha (Alternative Transliteration) | | * ينوياشا (Alternative Language) |
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