Inuyasha

—by Charles McCarter

Most anime fans have their own "golden age" of anime, which is usually totally subjective and self-defined. For many people, this age was the 1980s. Television series were long and often ran for multiple seasons, and there was a lot of it. It was also before all the character designs started to look the same (so you could tell shows apart), and before Hayashibara Megumi was the female lead in every show. (Yes, there was anime before Megumi. But don't get me wrong, she's great.)
INUYASHA reminded me of this "golden age," the age when Takahashi shows ruled the airwaves. First URUSEI YATSURA, which went on forever, then the 96-episode MAISON IKKOKU (my all-time favorite anime) and then the immortal RANMA 1/2. It seemed like you couldn't turn on a TV in the 1980s without seeing Takahashi anime. And since RANMA rolled on well into the early 90s, it looked to be more of the same.
But then the RANMA manga ended, and Takahashi immediately set to work on her new series, INUYASHA. Then the RANMA anime ended. There were a few OVAs. Everyone began waiting for the INUYASHA anime. And they waited, literally, for years.
Now, finally, it's here. And it is good, at least what I've seen so far. Inuyasha (the title character) is a demon, sort of, and in the first episode he's stealing a precious artifact from a Japanese shrine. Or at least he's trying too. But the locals won't let him get away with it. Meanwhile, several centuries later, a girl named Kagome finds her life suddenly turned upside-down with the arrival of this dog-boy demon. And it seems that she is the reincarnation of the girl who stopped him several centuries earlier, so he's none too thrilled with her.
The animation is excellent. The opening animation is beautiful, and the animation for the episodes is certainly good for television quality. In fact, what's surprising about the animation is that it's being handled by one of the studios at Sunrise, which is the first time that a Takahashi title has been done at the venerable studio.
Another interesting tidbit is the voice of Inuyasha. Those who follow voice actors or even Takahashi works might find his voice familiar, since the role is done by none other than (male) Ranma, Yamaguchi Kappei. His cocky, sure-of-himself delivery that he perfected with Ranma is indeed present here, but the voice doesn't sound identical.
The show itself is an interesting mix of action, suspense and comedy. Those familiar with Takahashi's works like LAUGHING TARGET and the MERMAID series know that she is as deft with horror and the occult as she is with comedy. And in INUYASHA these two genres seem to merge together in a way that has never happened in any of her previous works.
There's a lot more to say about INUYASHA, and most of it good. But it's one of those shows best left to be discovered as the show unfolds, and giving too much information away will take away some of the suspense that the show slowly builds.
The good news is that it is more than likely that Viz will snap up this title for American release. The bad news is, from what I've been able to uncover, this is going to be a short series, meaning less than 26 episodes. It's too bad, really, because a lot of great stories in the INUYASHA manga will never be animated, but then again, at least we're finally seeing some of it.

TV Series, Now Airing in Japan (Mondays at 7PM on NTV network stations)