First of all, I may need to clarify the werewolf and vampire thing since they are both referred to as demons in the English dub. "Demon" as used in Inuyasha, is actually a loose translation of the Japanese word yokai which may better translate as "monster" than as demon. True, some of the demons are the western version, but there are actually four categories of yokai, hegeyokai or shapeshifting animals, tsukomogami, inanimate objects come to life, humans turned yokai or undead, and "other" for lack of a better term for all the rest. Hegeyokai are very important in Inuyasha, particularly because the title character is one. Hegeyokai are generally the eastern equivalent of werewolves except that instead of being humans that turn into animals, they are animals that figure out how to turn into humans. In Inuyasha they seem to diverge into two more groups, bad ass werewolf types, and cute little comic relief fairy types like Shippo. This is an unusual distinction unique to Inuyasha, though they feature the two most common hegeyokai, Kitsune foxes and Tanooki raccoons, in the forms of Shippo and Hachi respectively, both falling into the latter grouping. The bad ass types are represented by Inuyasha himself and his brother Sesshomaru, and they are actually dogs. Actually, Inuyasha is a hanyo or half-demon because his mother was a human and that means he doesn't really belong in either world. Funny thing, Inuyasha actually comes from the Japanese words inu meaning dog and yasha meaning demon, although yasha is the feminine form so that actually makes Inuyasha "female dog demon" which the English speaker can then translate to "demon bitch" which is actually appropriate every time Kagome yells "Sit!" Poor Inuyasha! As for the vampire, technically Kikyo is not a vampire, but she does actually suck the life out of people to sustain her own life so she is the closest thing in Asian mythology to a vampire. So yeah, that would make Inuyasha Twilight for anime fans, only ours is better. Isn't it always?
Okay, so now that I have the culture lesson out of the way, time for the synopsis for those who missed the neglected middle child between DBZ and the current big three(Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece). Inuyasha starts out with a girl named Kagome who lives in modern day Tokyo and goes looking for her cat in an old well that nobody has used in years. She falls in and when she tries to get out suddenly there is a forest where her house used to be and she's being chased by a giant centipede. As she runs away she finds a boy pinned to a tree with an arrow through his heart, looking surprisingly healthy despite said arrow. He has long white hair, pointy dog-like ears(which Kagome finds adorable), fangs and golden eyes. He suddenly regains conciousness and asks Kagome to pull out the arrow. The centipede catches up and pulls something out of Kagome and she pulls the arrow out of the boy so he can help her. He promptly kills the centipede and then prepares to turn on Kagome. Suddenly a string of beads appears around his neck and an old woman tells Kagome to subdue him. She thinks of how he looks like a dog and desperately cries "Sit!" and the beaded necklace drags him to the ground. The old woman, who identifies herself as Kaede, then gathers them back at her house to explain what has happened. The dog boy is Inuyasha the former lover of her sister Kikyo who protected the sacred Jewel of Four Souls. The jewel had the power to increase a demon's power and turn a mortal into a mighty sorceror, and Inuyasha believed it could make him a full demon. However, he fell in love with Kikyo and with her love he decided he didn't need the jewel. But then one night something went wrong, the two had a fight, and Inuyasha ran off with the jewel, Kikyo shot him with the arrow sealing him to the tree and she died, requesting the jewel be burned with her body so she could take it into the next world and prevent it from being misused in this world. Kagome is the reincarnation of Kikyo from the future and she has returned to the feudal era through the well and the object the centipede pulled from her body was the jewel that reincarnated with her. Kaede is willing to take the jewel off of Kagome's hands and let her go back to her own time, but before that can happen, the jewel is stolen by a crow demon and she tries to shoot it down with an arrow, shattering the jewel and scattering it to the winds. The shards still have enough power to be dangerous, but only the whole jewel will do what Inuyasha wants. Kagome can sense the jewel shards and act as Inuyasha's guide while he protects her, and they have to cooperate or the demons will destroy Kagome's future. That's all just the first two episodes people. As they go looking for the jewel shards they meet Shippo a cute tiny fox demon child who has recently been orphaned by demons using the shards. Inuyasha defeats the demons and they bring Shippo along with them. The next big event is the resurrection of Kikyo as a vampire by a demon named Urusuei, who Kikyo promptly kills. Kikyo is now saddled with serpentine soul collectors who sustain her by killing everyone who comes near her and bring her the souls. Inuyasha is now torn between the original and the reincarnation, but Kikyo is unsettled and runs away, leaving Inuyasha and Kagome to continue their quest. Next they meet Miroku a monk who works as an exorcist, although he has a bit of a racket going on with a Tanuki named Hachi who haunts people until Miroku is hired to get rid of him. Miroku isn't totally a con-man though, he has actual power, he's just lazy an prefers to take the easy way out. However we find out he has a dark backstory; a demon tried to enter his granfather's house a long time ago and tricked him by taking the form a beautiful woman, and when the lecherous man groped the demon he was cursed with a hole in his hand that would grow to swallow him up, and now Miroku has inherited this hole and he must destroy this demon to break the curse before it swallows him too. Soon they meet the demon, his name is Naraku, and he leads them to a a demon hunter named Sango and her Nekomata Kilala. Naraku killed Sango's family so she shares Miroku's goal of vengance. The really strange twist is that Naraku turns out to actually have been a patient in the care of Kikyo and fell in love with her. When she chose Inuyasha instead he was filled with such hatred that he became a demon as well and orchestrated the fight that tore them apart fifty years ago. So now the core cast is assembled and united against Naraku.
I owe this series for inspiring me to include demons in 7th Moon, even if it was sort of an afterthought. Get them both at Amazon, an Happy Valentine's Day!
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