A good review - unbiased and very honest, just like a review of any anime should be.
Inuyasha tv Review
Story & Characters
Inuyasha: The story of a girl, her hanyou, a broken jewel that's scattered all across feudal Japan, and a bad guy who wears eye shadow, because all bad guys wear eye shadow.
All in all, Inuyasha has an extremely simple story. Kagome, a normal middle school girl from present day, falls into a well at her family's shrine and is sucked back in time to Feudal Japan. She awakens Inuyasha, who was stuck to a tree by a lost love 50 years prior. Feudal Japan is a very mystical world, with lots of demons, magic, and danger. Inuyasha (along with most other demons), seek the Shikon no Tama, a magical jewel that grants enormous power. Unbeknownst to Kagome, she's the carrier of the jewel. This makes her the target of every demon in existence.
Our title character is actually only a half demon. He seeks the jewel to become a full demon (or full human, depends on who you ask). Kikyou, his lost love, was the last guardian of the Shikon no Tama. She died in a struggle with Inuyasha over it. Note that Kagome looks a lot like Kikyou, especially when she is dressed in traditional miko garb.
We all know where this is going. Inuyasha goes after Kagome but is stopped by a magic rosary. The rosary allows Kagome to "tame" Inuyasha with a simple command. She chooses the word "osuwari!" translating to "sit!" With Inuyasha being a dog demon, this makes the command quite hilarious. Somewhere along the way, Kagome manages to break the jewel and scatter it all over Feudal Japan (she's skillful like that). She and Inuyasha must set out on a journey to recover all the pieces, as the outcome of a demon getting a hold of a piece is extremely predictable.
Inuyasha ran for 167 episodes, four movies, and many volumes of manga. The premise is original, but execution can be a bit cliché. A few different love stories exist intertwined, but no real conflict among our main characters, but when Kikyou reenters the picture... I just won't go there. The adventure is somewhat mundane, as the episodes seem to follow a sort of "monster of the month" format, with several well defined story arcs. Each arc follows a similar pattern: kill a few weak enemies, move on to stronger ones, and eventually get to the one leading all the henchmen. Oh, and don't forget Naraku, the big evil bad guy who everyone wants to kill.
Rating:
Art
Inuyasha suffers from being a series that has run for five years. While animation technology has advanced, the character designs haven't. For example, Kagome of 2005 looks pretty similar to Kagome of 2000. I would have expected some maturity in art style from a series that has run this long. CG was added over the years for effects, but it can stick out poorly sometimes. Every so often, an effect feels like it doesn't mesh well with the hand drawn parts. Another thing I noticed while examining the evolution of art was the inconsistencies in art style. Some episodes just didn't feel as polished as others. Perhaps this can be attributed to the large staff that worked on it?
While the art does have some flaws, they are expected. Some of the scenes, however, were rendered absolutely beautifully. Calming scenes are usually well done with lots of emphasis on light contrast. An evening romance scene or reflection scene will be littered with small light sources, illuminating the environment with the right amount of ambient light.
Rating:
Sound
The Inuyasha soundtrack is somewhat bland. In all, I think there were only 4 or 5 actual instrumental soundtracks. For a series that spans 167 episodes, only six hours of background music seems somewhat little. What was in the series wasn't bad; in fact I enjoyed many of the tracks (mainly the calmer pieces). Unfortunately, it got extremely repetitive. Even songs that were labeled as different sounded extremely similar. Even the instrumentals for the movies sounded extremely similar. In my opinion, there simply was not enough variety.
The vocals, on the other hand, are a different story. The music for Inuyasha was published by Avex Mode, one of the largest media groups in Japan (at least it feels like it). All of the themes were done by Avex artists, all of which who were not new to the recording industry. Artists that contributed to Inuyasha included V6, BoA, Do As Infinity, Ayumi Hamasaki, Dream, Tackey and Tsubasa, and Namie Amuro. I was a big fan of most of the vocals, and ended up purchasing the Best of Inuyasha albums. In all, Inuyasha went through six opening themes and eight ending themes.
Rating:
Presentation
Unfortunately, like many long-running manga adaptations, Inuyasha suffered from a story that hasn't ended yet. The manga is still being published, but the series has come to an end. In all honesty, I started to lose interest in the series when it crossed the 100 episode mark. Now, this isn't to say that Inuyasha didn't catch my attention when I first saw it. I watched the first 60 or so episodes in about two weeks. My schoolwork suffered slightly during that time. However, it came to the point where the series started to drag on without any end in sight. I still stuck with the series, but no longer felt the same desire to see the next episode. The cliffhangers didn't capture my attention as in the past.
As a long time fan, I recognize a good series when I see it. I also recognize amazing series. In my opinion, Inuyasha was not that amazing. It did keep me entertained for the two years I followed it, but I was not totally dazzled or completely blown away. It takes a certain breed of story writing to pull that off well in a series that has run for so long.
To all those die-hard Inuyasha fans, Inuyasha simply isn't the greatest thing I've ever seen. I enjoyed it, yes, but I've found better things to keep track of. 167 episodes is simply too long. To all those Kikyou haters out there, give the girl a break, huh? She was a victim of an extremely twisted and evil plot, of which she lost her life. Unfortunately, the other victim lived and was allowed to continue on with his life.
As always, this review was written with [url=notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/]Notepad++[/url].
Rating:
Final Verdict
5.6667 (average)
Reviewed by kawaiiguy, Jun 23, 2005
Comments
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crsg Jun 23, 2005
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aznteen097 Jun 26, 2005
inuyasha is so kool and oh good reveiw^,^
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minamitakayama Jun 26, 2005
a good review ^^
everything is right and clear :) -
aznteen097 Jun 27, 2005
its so kool you know inuyasha and good reveiw again see ya
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gracie-chan Jun 27, 2005
Nice review
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ryo88 Jun 27, 2005
inuyasha CAN BE A little feminine AT times,but CAN ALSO BE VERY masculine.the fights ARE great BUT NOT ALL OF them. THE BEST SAGA IS THE seven MAN ARMY which sorta balances THEM both,with A LOVE story AND excellent battles.the review WAS somehwat accurate.
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kawaiiguy Jun 28, 2005
Quote by ryo88inuyasha CAN BE A little feminine AT times,but CAN ALSO BE VERY
masculine.the fights ARE great BUT NOT ALL OF them. THE BEST SAGA is
the seven MAN ARMY which sorta balances THEM both,with A LOVE story AND
excellent battles.the review WAS somehwat accurate.
I personally wasn't a big fan of that story arc, even though we did get a whole bunch of new characters. By that time, Inuyasha had already crossed the 100 episode mark and I got really bored. At that point, it really didn't matter to me how long it was until the next episode, but I watched anyway. Ever have that happen?I stand by my original assesment, thanks for the input everyone. It's much appreciated!
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Inuyasha-FAN Aug 07, 2005
Well this is my one of my favorite shows i think its the best. i just dont get why it has so many episodes but, i dont really care as long as i can watch it im good.. o yeah nice review
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acree Oct 15, 2005
Inuyasha is very good anime
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Chloe-san Nov 14, 2005
You highlighted all the parts that needed it. Inuyasha is a kool anime to me but with too many episodes. Very nice review.
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melony Feb 27, 2006
I agree that the story tends the drag on.By the 100th episode Iwas like "Inuyasha STILL hasn't become a full demon?" Plus his stubborness and occasional oblivous-state kind of gets irritating. Sometimes with Kagome I go "What the heck are you thinking?" and other times I think she's really needy.The movies,both in art and storyline, are better.The plot itself was original but the series is SERIOUSLY messed up with cliches.
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angelxxuan Banned Member May 22, 2012
well structured review, I rather like it, I also like how you rated things. it's rare to see people actually rate things properly, it's normally all really high numbers or really low numbers, but I can't argue with the review nor the rating, sort of a bland anime for me.
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UberDog Mar 23, 2015
Good review, can't argue against these ratings. Simple but well written.
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