The popularity of the Inuyasha anime and manga series

Inuyasha? Or is it Inuyasha? Either way, this feudal fairy tale is one of the most popular Japanese anime today. And it all started with a comic book series (better known as a “manga series”) written by Rumiko Takahashi. But what makes this anime series so popular, and why do more than 130,000 people a month search for Inuyasha on internet search engines?

InuYasha is Japanese for “dog spirit” and you will find that this is appropriate for a title. The story is about a time-traveling student, Kagome Higurashi, and Inuyasha, who, along with other exciting anime characters, fight to protect the Jewel of Four Souls. This jewel grants vastly increased powers to anyone who possesses it and will spell catastrophe if it falls into the wrong hands.

Of course there are certainly wrong hands for it to fall! The evil Naraku is one they must defeat. And all the characters – a demon slayer, a demon fox, a monk and more – must do their best to find the jewel, which was stolen and then broken into many fragments.

So the story is exciting, yes. And drags you with all the adventures you can imagine. The anime comes from the popular Japanese manga series, which was adapted into 167 anime episodes directed by two different directors. It first aired on Yomiuri TV in Japan in 2000 and ran until the end of 2004. There was no conclusion, and in order to continue the series, you need to read the manga that is still running.

The manga itself began in Shonen Sunday, a weekly publication in Japan, in November 1996 and continued to 485 published chapters as of 2006 and still continuing. If you’re collecting these numbers, you can collect every 10 chapters or so in a bound volume. There is no sign of Inuyasha stopping and you can continue reading the manga at your leisure as long as Takahashi continues to create the story.

If there weren’t tons of people enjoying the series, it wouldn’t have continued and it would have been a resounding flop. And the author would not now be one of the richest women in Japan. The demand for the story to continue comes from the readers and viewers of the manga and anime, and this demand has spread all over the world.

The English version, published by Viz Media, had to change the format because, of course, in Japanese a person reads from right to left, while in the US and many other countries, reading goes from left to left. right. English comics were published starting in 1998 and continue to be published, but are still a few years away from catching up with Japanese publications in history.

Inuyasha was first broadcast as an anime on satellite television by Animax and in the US on Cartoon Network. It also airs on Latin American Cartoon Network and is dubbed in Spanish. You can even watch it on some cruise ships, if you want to spend a cruise watching anime. Well, many do! And this only verifies the huge popularity of the series and the incredible and fascinating story of Inuyasha and the Four Souls Jewel.