"The moving feelings between heaven and earth, the unrepentant love in the chaotic world, the enmity in the past life, the love feud in this life, a romantic adventure story that takes place in the Warring States!"
In the previous episodes of the classic anime review, you have revisited the hilarious fantasy fighting manga "Crazy Horse 1/2" by the famous Japanese female manga artist Rumiko Takahashi, and after seeing the very familiar opening statement above, you may have guessed what the work to be reviewed in this issue is, right? Yes, this issue is going to review another long anime created by the teacher that is very popular in both China and Japan, and is based on the story of the Sengoku yokai, "InuYasha"!
In order to succeed the then-just-completed "Inuyasha 1/2", Rumiko Takahashi began a serial series in 1996 in the manga magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday (Weekly Shonen Shōnen Sunday), which serialized a total of 558 episodes and released 56 volumes. As one of the most popular Japanese manga in the 1990s, InuYasha was animated twice between 2000 and 2004 and 2009 to 2010, and once the anime was broadcast, the ratings were amazing, and the popularity spread throughout Japan, allowing Rumiko Takahashi to climb to another small peak in her career as a manga artist.
From the fantastic fantasy comedy "Fuxing Kid", to the depiction of the warm love drama between young people, "A Moment Together", to the hilarious kung fu fighting comedy "Crazy Horse 1/2", each of Takahashi's works has a unique style. As the teacher's longest work at present, "InuYasha" has received a variety of opinions and disagreements, because its plot routine is like a hot-blooded juvenile comic that is brave enough to risk saving the world, and it is also like a pure love girl comic in which humans and monsters love and hate.
The story tells that the third grade girl, Nichiren Gewei, accidentally fell into the bone-eating well of her shrine, traveled through time and space to the Japanese Sengoku period 500 years ago, encountered the half-demon dog Night Fork that had been sealed on the sacred tree for 50 years, and embarked on a romantic and gorgeous adventure with her companions in order to find the fragments of the Jade of the Four Souls scattered everywhere.
In the whole work, Rumiko Takahashi's delicate grasp of the emotions of the characters is recognized by fans, which is full of profound exploration of human nature and love (love, friendship, family affection), and creates one after another characters with distinct personalities, flesh and blood, and impressive.
Inuyasha, a silver-haired, red-clad half-demon boy whose father is a inuyasha of the Western Kingdom and whose mother is a beautiful human princess. His personality seems to be untamed, but he is as innocent and kind as a child. Due to the special life of the half-demon, he was alone and suffered from the cold eyes of humans and youkai since childhood, and every night of the New Moon, he would lose all his power and become a fragile human, thus developing a strong desire for power, bent on snatching the jade of the four souls to become a real big monster.
"Night Fork" means guardian in Japanese legend.
Kirito, a beautiful witch with high spiritual power who has been entrusted with the task of purifying the Jade of the Four Souls. Fifty years ago, she was responsible for guarding the Jade of Four Souls, and she encountered inuyasha, who tried to rob the Jade of Four Souls, and the two of them had a hostile relationship from the beginning to pity each other... She made Inuyasha, who originally wanted to use the power of the Jade of Four Souls to become stronger, determined to change from a half-demon to a human. But because of Nairobi's intrigue and trickery, the two people who love each other deeply misunderstand each other and hate each other. Before dying, Kirito personally sealed the Inuyasha fork on the sacred tree and took the Jade of the Four Souls to the Sea of Fire to the unknown world.
Nippori Gewei (Japanese version translated as Nippori Hedge), a lively, optimistic, strong and brave 15-year-old junior third girl, was attacked on her birthday by a monster sealed in the shrine's home to eat bones, and returned to the Sengoku period 500 years ago with the jade of the four souls hidden in her body. Arranged by the invisible red line of fate, as the reincarnation of Kirito, she unlocked the seal of the teenager sleeping on the sacred tree, and the two embarked on an adventure to collect the broken and scattered Jade of the Four Souls.
The Jade of the Four Souls is the most critical object in the whole work, and all the stories revolve around it. Legend has it that hundreds of years ago, a powerful witch, Tsukiko, fought fiercely with the strongest monster assemblage, she took the soul of the youkai and integrated it into her own soul, and finally formed a treasure jade that can give the possessor great power, the Jade of the Four Souls, which was fought by the desired yokai and humans. It will become good or evil depending on the possessor, and once it is contaminated in the hands of monsters or bad people, it will be purified in the hands of those with pure souls.
Under the ambition of the ghost girl Ritao and the conspiracy of Nairo, Kirito, who should have been sleeping underground, is re-summoned to the present world, which is the most shocking god unfolding in the early stages of the story. He was the lover of InuYasha and the one who sealed Inuyasha with his own hands, but kirito, who died and resurrected, resented him deeply because he thought he had been betrayed, and the original holy witch became a sad monster who could only rely on the dead soul worm to maintain her life. Although the truth about the two men's enmity has gradually been revealed, Kirito, who is a dead person, can no longer be revived, and the broken red line of fate between the two can no longer be restored...
The two meanings of the kirito flower language: eternal love and hopeless love, both hint at her tragic life.
In fact, as early as the beginning of the conception of the plot of "InuYasha", the core protagonists have been determined to be Inuyasha, Kirito and Govi, and the entangled love triangle between them is destined to run through the beginning and end of the entire work. (Hand-picked by Rumiko Takahashi, the animated version of Inuyasha and Kirito's cv followed the "couple combination" of Katsuhira Nakaguchi x Takato in "Crazy Horse 1/2".) Before the work was finished, Inuyasha had been oscillating and struggling between Kirito and Govi, about who he loved most in his heart and who should he be with? It has always been a topic for die-hard fans to tsu (dui) tsu (li) le (hu) road (qia).
Leaving aside the emotional entanglements of the three protagonists, in this long and dangerous adventure, Inuyasha and Govi have successively met a number of trustworthy companions: Maitreya, a lustful mage who is cursed and leaves a "wind cave" in his right hand, the exorcist coral who is tragically killed by the poison scheme of the entire village, the mount mica that faithfully accompanies the coral, and the cute little fox demon Shippo.
At the same time, Nero, the mastermind behind all the intrigues and tricks, gradually revealed his evil true colors. As the protagonist's nemesis, Nero is actually a half-demon like Inuyasha, but he is born of the fusion of the human monster spider that covets the orange terrier and countless ghosts and monsters, and he uses all dirty means to desire the Jade of the Four Souls, and delusionally abandons the part of the body that belongs to the lowly human being.
Intriguingly, the twins who split off from the absolute villain Nairo, whether they are Kagura whose heart was taken away but longed for freedom, or Kagura who betrayed Naraku because of Kagura's death, as youkai, flashed the brilliance of human nature, making it difficult to define their good and evil absolutely, which is also the cleverness of Rumiko Takahashi in the shaping of the character image.
In addition to the quasi-protagonist Inuyasha, if you want to talk about the most popular and attractive male character, it must be his half-brother, the cold and beautiful noble prince killing pill! Rumiko Takahashi originally planned to let him appear once, and then quit after drawing out Inuyasha's most important weapon in the future, Iron Fangs, but she never expected that he would gain great popularity and become a male god in the hearts of countless fans.
Possessing the perfect youkai bloodline, The Killing Pill hated humans very much, and at first did not understand why his father passed on the iron fangs to the lowly half-demon, nor did he understand his father's painstaking intention to give him the natural teeth that saved mankind, and he had joined forces with Nairo several times to try to fight for the iron teeth. After a defeat, xiaoling, an innocent human girl, was met and saved, and a cold demon heart was gradually melted...
After many duels with powerful enemies such as Killing Pills, Dragon Bone Spirits, Goku Ghosts, Gang of Seven, Nairo and his doppelgangers, Inuyasha understood the mysteries hidden in the iron fangs such as Wind Wound, BlastIng, and Moon Break, and after several times when his mind was out of control due to imminent death and almost put his companions in danger, he finally stopped longing for the power of the youkai and understood what is truly strong and gentle - cherishing and loving the people around him.
During the anime's hits, the original four original animated films adapted from Toho: "Thoughts Through Time and Space", "Dream City in the Mirror", "The Sword of the World", and "Penglai Island of the Red Lotus" were released one after another at a stable pace every year. The first animated film, "Thoughts Through Time and Space", achieved a box office performance of more than 1.4 million viewers and a revenue of 1.5 billion yen.
Among all the animation works in Japan during the same period, the musical level of the animated version of "InuYasha" is absolutely first-class, and popular singers from Japan and South Korea such as Namie Amuro, Ayumi Hamasaki, boa, v6, and Tohoku Shinki have sung op and ed for it, and the soundtrack created by Wada Ao is perfectly integrated with the story, leaving a very deep impression. In particular, the bgm of the same name as the first animated film "Thoughts Through Time and Space" has been widely circulated in China, and after countless people's adaptations and cover songs, we can often hear it in various TV shows or radios, which can always evoke fans' good memories of this classic work.
The anime version of Inuyasha had to embark on a route to original content due to its content exceeding the manga's serial progress, and finally ended hastily with a pseudo-ending, and was officially discontinued in September 2004 amid the regrets of fans. Since then, Inuyasha has only been serialized in manga magazines, and the late protracted plot has made the popularity of the work begin to decline, ushering in the end of the story in 2008, the 12th year of the manga series.
Fortunately, a year after the end of the manga version, the official responded to the wishes of loyal fans, gathered the original production staff and voice actor lineup, and broadcast "InuYasha: The End" from 2009 to 2010. The anime epilogue, which is based on the contents of the 36-volume manga single-line book to the 56-volume final volume, had to cut a lot of story details due to the length of only 26 episodes, and only produced the main plot and key plot. However, in any case, it is finally a less than perfect but complete end to the animation version.
Those touching story clips are still remembered by loyal fans to this day...
After a deep kiss with Inuyasha, Kirito transforms into a ray of light and disappears
Under the eyes of the killing pill, the dead Kagura finally became the wind of freedom as desired
In the face of The Little Bell who almost died again, the Killing Pill said, "In this world, there is nothing equal to the life of the Bell. ”
Before the main villain Nairops dies, he reveals his true wish in his heart: I just want to get Kirito's heart.
In the final battle, in the face of the temptation set by the Jade of The Four Souls, Ge Wei made the only right wish: even if he could no longer return to the Warring States Era, he would purify the Jade of the Four Souls and make it disappear, cutting off the world's pursuit of evil forces.
Three years later, Maitreya and Coral formed a small family and gave birth to three healthy children; Killing Pill entrusted Xiao Ling to Grandma Feng to raise, and returned to the village every year with gifts to see her, waiting for her choice when she grew up; Steel Tooth put down Ge Wei and married Calamus as a bride under the blessing of the clan; Shippo worked hard to go out to practice in order to become stronger; Amber survived because of the protection of The Orange Terrier and became a demon exorcist...
Ge Wei, who graduated from high school in the modern world, finally used the power of thoughts to open the well of bone eating that had been closed for three years, and returned to the Warring States Period to live with Inuyasha, and a love that traveled through time and space with past and present lives finally came to fruition.
After experiencing life and death, this may not be the most satisfactory finale of "InuYasha", but everyone understands what happiness they are pursuing, and firmly pursues their own happiness. Just like the title of the final words of the work, "Tomorrow", everyone lives happily towards tomorrow!
After the end of the manga and animation, InuYasha has not completely disappeared from everyone's vision, and often brings new surprises to fans. In 2013, in response to the reconstruction of the Great Japan Earthquake, Rumiko Takahashi specially painted the special chapter "After That" of InuYasha, which tells the warm daily life of Inuyasha and Govi half a year after the end of the story.
In the same year, in the 559th episode of the "InuYasha" radio drama "The Day After Tomorrow" officially launched by the Elementary School, Killing Pill made a minute-long affectionate confession to the bell and sprinkled a sweet sugar on the killing bell CP party! On April 6 of this year, the live-action stage play "InuYasha" starring Japanese idols such as Takeyoshi Kiya, Yumi Wakatetsu and Junna Ito was staged in Tokyo...
Finally, I believe that all fans who like this game have been curious about a question in their hearts: What kind of dog breed is in the family of InuYasha and Killing Pill? Samoyed? Kishu dogs? Silver Fox?
Regarding the pedigree and variety, of course, it is the mother who has the most right to speak! In fact, Rumiko Takahashi once said in an interview at the end of the volume of InuYasha Deluxe Edition 01: "The reason why [they] are set up as "dogs" is, first of all, of course, because dogs are human companions. ...... I like the flat face shape like Shiba Inu or Pug. As for Inuyasha, no matter how you look at it, it feels very similar to Shiba Inu. ”
I already knew that my first love object was a dog, but I never expected that it turned out to be a stupid white Shiba Inu!
Heard your first love was me?