Rumiko Takahashi is a legend. With stuff like Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, and Inuyasha under her belt it’s no wonder the Takahashi name is synonymous with anime and manga as a medium. While each of these venerable series have been out for quite some time, it’s nice to take a look back once in a while. VIZ has just released a massive “VIZBIG” volume of the first three volumes of Inuyasha’s manga. Totaling 576 pages in all, this omnibus release is something to behold, whether you’re an Inuyasha fan or not.
For the uninitiated, Inuyasha begins with a tale the originates back in feudal Japan and sees a half-demon, named Inuyasha, attacking a village in search of the Jewel of Four Souls. A young miko named Kikyo uses her powers to seal the demon and dies protecting the jewel. Centuries later one of her descendants, Kagome, finds herself in the midst of events beyond her imagination. One day Kagome happens to be near a well on her family’s property, and she’s dragged into it by a centipede-like demon. The well takes her into the past and soon enough she’s face to face with people from Kikyo’s village, including Kikyo’s little sister (who is now quite old).
After realizing the gravity of what just happened, Kagome is attacked once again by the centipede demon. Hope seems lost, but when she finds herself face to face with the sleeping Inuyasha her course of action seems clear. With little hesitation she awakens Inuyasha from his slumber, against Kaede’s wishes, and he reluctantly comes to her aid. After taking care of the centipede, Inuyasha turns on Kagome, thinking she is Kikyo. You see, Kagome looks like her, smells like her, and Inuyasha can sense a Shikon Jewel on her person. Naturally, he wants to get his hands on it, but the quick thinking Kaede helps out by putting a collar on the half-demon that makes him susceptible to Kagome’s command.
With everything going on Kagome really just wants to go back home. She heads back to the well which brought her to this point in time, but is intercepted by a crow demon that wants to get its claws on her Jewel. This leads to another battle that sees Inuyasha springing into action at Kagome’s side. Though he defends her it would seem that Kagome has some innate abilities that came from Kikyo, such as an affinity for using a bow and arrow and seeing things other humans cannot. The conflict with the crow actually holds ramifications for the rest of the series, because Kagome’s Shikon Jewel is shattered into several shards that scattered across the land. This prompts a searching mission for Inuyasha and Kagome, and the two have to work together to recover all the shards.
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Article comments
1 - Bill Sherman
Is this volume really L to R like Amazon's write-up says? Or is that a screw-up?
2 - Todd
That's a goof. It reads like a traditional manga, R to L.
-T
3 - James
but none of the color pages were restored though, unlike other Vizbig edition (Dragon ball for instance). So you are stuck with black and white, even on color pages