So, last episode we covered Bone Collection, which is absolute trash. However, aspects of the manga (the constant gags, the romance plot, a boy and a girl as the two protagonists, frequently pulling from Japanese culture and mythology) reminded me of a way better series: Inuyasha.  The main plot follows Kagome, a young schoolgirl who falls down a well into an alternate dimension that is also ancient Japan (don’t think too hard about it). There she meets Inuyasha, a half-dog demon. Or a half-demon dog? He’s a half-demon but the demon part is part dog. I think. It makes more sense if you’re familiar with Japanese mythology, which I barely am. Anyway, Kagome and Inuyasha commence traveling across feudal Japan in search of shards of the Shikon jewel, which when reassembled will grant its owner any wish. Also, Kagome is the reincarnation of Inuyasha’s girlfriend Kikyo who got tricked into pinning him to a tree with an arrow for like 50 years but if I start going into detail with the story this article will never end. Inuyasha is notable because it’s one of the few franchises to successfully appeal to boys and girls at the same time. There are really cool fight scenes with big flashy attacks and Inuyasha has a massive cool anime sword, which I thought was really cool when I was a teenager. But on the other hand, the series has romance, pretty boys, and a surprising amount of strong female characters (probably because it was written by a woman), which ensured the series had a large following among teen girls too. It really is a show that has something for everyone. Inuyasha is 167 episodes long and can be streamed on Hulu.

Shonen Flop