InuYasha

[Martinman]

So, the manga has been done for more than half a year by now.  It is time to re-visit Takahashi's masterpiece one volume at a time. 

Starting this Sunday, we will begin discussing first volume, which is comprised of chapters 1-8

Rules:  No chatting, spamming, (important >>> ) posting to scanlation sites (<<<important), flaming, trolling, etc.

NO MAJOR SPOILERS!! Some people may have seen the anime, but not read the manga.  Try to avoid spoiling, but if it is needed for the conversation, try to use the spoiler code.

Hopefully we can get some good discussion going.

I started a new thread since the old one is so huge, and contains major spoilers.

Message Edited by Martinman on 02-17-2009 12:16 AM

Message Edited by Martinman on 02-17-2009 12:51 AM

[Slash24881]

Im confused

so we start nao to read chaps 1-8 then discuss here

i havent read inu manga but id soo would do that

[doxiedachsie]

How are we going to do thisw with absolutely no spoilers?

I think we should put in a disclaimer that some limited spoilers may be present.  All should be appropriately hidden, of course. 

[Slash24881]

Umm...cover up code?

[doxiedachsie]

Anything that will match the text & background colors should do.

[hairlessrat]

Just type the word "Spoiler" and then change the font color to black. I was taking time to reread the Manga. I'm at 510 now, so I'm not going back yet again (except to read chapters w/Sess in them).

[crushrose]

this sounds like fun

[Slash24881]

 im gonna be doing a personal count of how many times someone screams "INUYASHA!!!" I dont know why but i thought that it would be a funny ideea yeah this is gonna rock...i think im gonna start reading alittle bit right now >_> (or post in another inu thread)

[doxiedachsie]

Just finished the chapters.  Not to discuss the content, but Takahashi does such a great job of giving Inu some really scary facial expressions.

[Stevv]

I have the 1st 2 books lol.  My dad actually bought the first 3, but they were out of the 3rd one so they sent us $5 lol.

[Slash24881]

I have no books at all

And yeah...good facial work, the only thing i coudnt stop starring at was his more dog-like nose >_>

i wonder why they took that out of the anime

[crushrose]

I don't have any manga but I just read it off from the website its still the same

[doxiedachsie]

They did a lot of things in the anime.  They changed the size of his head in relation to his body.  They squared off his face. In general, they made him appear a little older. etc.  Most of it was based on decisions made by the original designers for the anime.  If you'll notice, the character designs for the movies were different, too.  They were a little closer to the manga.

[Martinman]

Well, here we go: Volume 1

I prefer the anime character designs to everything else.  As great a mangaka as Rumiko is, there is something about her main characters that looks odd.  The supporting characters look fine, but Inyasha and Kagome look unusual IMO.

Yura of the Demon Hair...an unusual villain.  One of the more memorable though, mostly for her looks.

[doxiedachsie]

It was surprising how angry & vicious Inuyasha looked in the first 3 chapters.  He planned to kill Kagome by dropping her after she hit the crow with the arrow.  Lucky for her she was a terrible shot then. They way he growled at Kagome when she put on prietess's clothing told a lot about his feelings over what happened with Kikyo. 

However, a little glimpse of his real character peeked out for a moment when he told Kagome that if he wanted the jewel, he would hve to be merciless. 

The pacing here seemed so much faster than in the anime.  Events came hard & fast on one another.  Also, when the bandits had Kagome, they took the jewel from her right away.  At that point, the carrion crow was gratuitously trying to kill her.  He had what he wanted & could have fed at any time, off anybody.

One thing I noticed, though, was that there was no explanation why Inuyasha did not wake up the first time Kagome touched him, but only later when she was running through the fields toward his forest & the dry well.  If he woke because of her scent, wouldn't have been much stronger when she was actually touching him?

At least they had learned to cooperate a little by the end of the volume.  Kagome was showing Inuyasha how to fight the hair & Inuyasha showed enough consideration for Kagome to give her his "armor" coat. 

[Martinman]

---

doxiedachsie wrote:

One thing I noticed, though, was that there was no explanation why Inuyasha did not wake up the first time Kagome touched him, but only later when she was running through the fields toward his forest & the dry well.  If he woke because of her scent, wouldn't have been much stronger when she was actually touching him?

---

There are several plot holes in early Inuyasha, the other big one is criteria for being able to go through the well.  I can't remember the others off the top of my head.

[Slash24881]

That was great! Inuyasha cusses ALOT and i learned alotta jpnese words

"What are you planning BlTCH?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAAA!!!!

[doxiedachsie]

The tree-binding scene in the first few pages of the manga are very different than the anime.  In the manga, the scene takes place in the forest.  In the anime, they created a whole shrine in the wrong place, with the wrong geography.  Here it is very easy to believe that the Higurashi shrine would stand on this spot in 500 years.

[hairlessrat]

I thought I was the only one who noticed his little doggy snout. He retains it for about the first 100 chapters. But, if you'll notice...they never show it clearly even in close-ups of his face. It's like they couldn't decide whether to give him a dog's nose or not...so they kept it open and decided later that since no one mentioned it...it should be normal.

[doxiedachsie]

In the first few chapters of the Yura story, Inuyasha's expressions are really changed from the beginning.  His face is more relaxed-looking & softer in expression.  Also, his reaction when Yura attacks Kagome is not a happy one, but he does not go wild like he would have later on.  It is beginning to look like he is starting to like her a little.

[doxiedachsie]

I will post a little about the next 8 episodes tomorrow.

[Martinman]

---

doxiedachsie wrote:
I will post a little about the next 8 episodes tomorrow.

---

The next bit of reading goes up to and includes chapter 18.  I think from here on out it is 10 chapters to a volume.  You can check the Inuyasha Manga Wikipedia article if you want to be sure.

Well, we get an introduction to Shesshomaru...the greatest character in the series.  Seeing him in dog form was awesome, and it was also notable that he actually pulled out Inuyasha's eye instead of using the energy beam from the anime.  It was kind of funny, Sesshomaru specifically mentions Inuyasha's right eye, but because of the image flip it is his left eye being take out.

[doxiedachsie]

Viz actually mistranslated it as left in order to match the image flip.  I thought that was funny.  It's also cute how Myoga was introduced in one of the last panels from the Yura battle.  He was among the skulls & had found Inuyasha at last.  It then took him 3 days to catch up to Inuyasha at Kaede's village.  At least it puts a timeline on events.

The scene that was added to the anime about Sesshomaru's visit to the false tomb & his "fang" speech were totally absent here, as was his "energy whip".  He tore the soldiers apart with his bare hands & let Jaken finish them off.  I also noted that the pearl extraction scene was more violent than in the anime.  It kind of justifies what Inuyasha did to him later.  "An arm for an eye."  Also the battle between the brothers was less protracted.  Much of the poison saliva & jumping through Father's body was added later on for the anime.

However, based on the way the manga showed the visit to the false tomb, it is very likely that Myoga only saw Jaken approach the tomb before he fled and would not have known who he was.  Then the later revelation that it was Sesshomaru would make sense.  The anime left that point dnagling.

Also, Inuyasha in the manga realizes that he was caught by a demon, but couldn't break free.  So he would be aware that Kagome had saved him, for all the thanks he gave her.  (Sarcasm)  

Takahashi's upside-down drawing of the Un-mother holding a sleeping child Inuyasha in her arms was impressive, though. 

[Slash24881]

Bleh...im so behind on reading...i gotta catch up T_T

where supposed to be on 16 and then 24 next week?

[doxiedachsie]

We just finished the battle between the brothers.  I think it is 17, because the book had nine scrolls in it.  The Inuyasha Companion web site has a list of the books & the chapters they contain.