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Inuyasha, The story begins in Tokyo, Japan with a junior high-school girl named Kagome Higurashi, who, on her way to school, heads to the covered well on the family property (which happens to be a Shinto shrine). She does this to retrieve her cat, Buyo, from the well, since her brother was afraid to go inside. When she approaches the well a centipede demon bursts from the well and grabs her. The demon claims that Kagome possesses the Jewel of the Four Souls (Shikon no Tama) and attempts to seize it. When the demon is driven off, the very confused Kagome emerges in the Sengoku period of Japan. Kagome wanders into a colossal forest looking for landmarks that she may recognize. She spots the Sacred Tree off in the distance and proceeds to run towards it, where she finds Inuyasha, who is still sealed with an arrow to the tree. He is asleep. Villagers seize her and take her to a nearby village where she meets an old miko (Shinto shrine maiden) by the name of Kaede, who recognizes that Kagome is almost a mirror likeness for Kikyo (Kikyou), her elder sister (and powerful shrine maiden) who had died at the age of 17 and had her body burned with the Jewel of the Four Souls, taking it with her into the afterlife.
Kaede relates the story of how, 50 years earlier, a han'yo named InuYasha had tried to steal the Jewel from Kikyo, mortally wounding her in the process, but Kikyo had managed to strike him with a magical arrow, pinning him into an enchanted sleep against a tree and thus retrieving the Jewel before she finally died. It is later shown that Inuyasha had a relationship with the priestess Kikyo and it was not him that tried to steal the jewel but Naraku, an evil character bent on destroying Kikyo, Inuyasha, and many other people. Inuyasha must fight his half brother Sesshomaru because he wants to kill Inuyasha for their father's sword, Tetsusaiga.
The plot focuses mainly on Kagome and InuYasha and their expanding group of friends, mainly Miroku, Shippo and Sango as they seek the shards of the Shikon Jewel of the Four Souls. The television show will occasionally skip over to the lives of the antagonists, minor characters or modern-day people as a way of setting up a plot, or clarifying a point. Flashbacks are occasionally used to the same effect. Shippo is a young fox demon who occasionally squabbles with Inuyasha, which tends to end with a bonk on the head and a "Sit!" on Kagome's part. Miroku is a rather lecherous monk armed with spell scrolls and his trusty spiritual staff, as well as his "Kazaana (Wind Tunnel)", an other-dimensional black hole embedded into his right palm. Sango is the beautiful but very sensible demon exterminator with a giant boomerang-like weapon (Hiraikotsu) and Kirara, her cat-demon companion who transforms from innocent kitten to formidable flaming feline. |
