(Genjutsu) |
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| Original Release Date: 04/21/04 | Review Date: 04/23/04 |
| Summary | |
| The youkai drug dealer abducts Sango in order to perform a ritual on her. Miroku, Kagome, and the now sober Inuyasha run to her rescue and clobber the man before learning what his true intention is, which is actually quite benign. In the end, Sango lets him take some of her blood, and he reverts to his original form: ... a mosquito? | |
| Review | |
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Hooray for more craziness! Man, the medicine dude just got clobbered repeatedly in this chapter. First Inu bites his head, then Sango flattens him, then Miroku flattens him... And all he wants is to break the curse some youkai put on him that turned him human.
I decided to leave this week's title untranslated, since when it came right down to it, there was no good English term for it other than maybe "Art of Illusion" or something. Besides, it could be considered a "style" or "method", which don't tend to get translated, anyway. Or I'm just lazy. :P Best Moment: ^_^* I was kinda partial to Inu biting the medicine man's head. He just looked so... doggy. And then when Sango fell under his spell and started to walk towards him, Inuyasha was tugging on her hand with his mouth, still looking like a dog. ^_^* But, this ends this filler arc, so we'll likely get back into plot next week. Maybe Kouga will come back again, after doing nothing particularly useful the last time he showed up. Or maybe we'll get back to the Kagura/Goryoumaru thing. Or maybe it'll just go off on yet another tangent. ::shrugs:: Anything's possible. |
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(The Medicine Man) |
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| Original Release Date: 04/14/04 | Review Date: 04/15/04 |
| Summary | |
| Kagura is left to watch after Goryoumaru, who attacks Naraku to no avail. Meanwhile, the Inu troupe hears about a medicine that could possibly counteract Miroku's reaction to the Saimyoushou's poison, which is sold by the mysterious disappearing drug dealer. Since the dealer is partial to young women, Sango and Inuyasha track him down, but when Inu falls spell to the medicines, Sango is left on her own... | |
| Review | |
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Farewell, plot! Hello, filler! Hm, I guess the latest couple of chapters were just getting too intense, so it was the perfect time to get sidetracked. However, it's all for a good cause. Because if this all works out, the line "Don't do it, Miroku! You'll be poisoned!" will NEVER be uttered again! AAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Best Moment: Inuyasha and the happy grass. Inuyasha's sniffing out the drug dealer, who he assumes to be a youkai, and ends up sniffing up more than just the guy's scent. He then proceeds to chase some butterflies and ends up wandering off a cliff. The medicine man himself... he looks like Jakotsu, only stoned and with no stripes. And he gives one nasty hickey. Either that, or this will become "Inuyasha vs. the Vampire Drug Dealer". WITH PRETTY BUTTERFLIES!! ... Yeah. This chapter was kinda like that. However, it's likely proceeding into more Miro/San stuff, which isn't particularly my cup of tea, but... eh. |
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(Evil Presence) |
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| Original Release Date: 04/07/04 | Review Date: 04/08/04 |
| Summary | |
| Kikyou faces off with Kanna, but Mouryoumaru shows up again and escapes with her and the baby. Meanwhile, Inu's group has returned to Kaede's village to recover from their wounds/poison from the stone ogre. Elsewhere, Naraku gives Kagura her final task: protect Goryoumaru, who is apparently not as beheaded as we thought. | |
| Review | |
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Ha ha, I knew Goryoumaru would come back! Actually the whole "Kagura's final task" thing is turning out pretty much how I expected. This looks like it will turn into a showdown between Kagura and Sesshoumaru, which seems like right up Naraku's alley. Why kill the traitor yourself when you can have the guy she's been conspiring with do it for you? Sesshoumaru is the one on Goryoumaru's trail right now, so it seems only logical that he'd end up there eventually.
Best Moment: ... Um. I don't know. There was some more Inu/Kago fluff, but since I'm not particularly romantic, that didn't excite me too much. I did like Goryoumaru reappearing, though, since it was basically a "HA! I KNEW it!" moment. And Kanna falling off the cliff just looked kinda funny. People don't generally look so... stoic, when throwing themselves off cliffs. Also, this chapter sort of throws a wrench in the Mouryoumaru = Goryoumaru thought, but... even though they were both in this chapter, they didn't appear together, so... it's still a possibility! ... I'm gonna remain stubborn and insist that there's still at least a CONNECTION between the two. |
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(To Use the Shard) |
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| Original Release Date: 03/31/04 | Review Date: 04/01/04 |
| Summary | |
| Inuyasha puts Kagome's Shikon shard in Tessaiga, but the jaki inside the ogre's belly corrupts the shard, influencing Inuyasha's youkai side. Kagome embraces him to get him back to himself, and he is able to regain sense and use his powered-up Tessaiga to break out of the ogre. Meanwhile, Kikyou finds Kanna and the baby. | |
| Review | |
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Hey, Inu/Kago fans, here's a chapter for you! We've got hugginess and Inu asking Kagome for moral support. Awww... Ahem.
Well, with that out of the way, since I am not very romantically inclined, on to the Best Moment: Sane youkai Inu! I never considered Inuyasha much of a looker, but with the stripes, fangs, and NORMAL eyes, he looks a lot more like his dad, who was mucho on the easy-on-the-eyes side. The hug that brought him back to sanity... meh, they've hugged before, so I don't think much of it. But Inu's never had the stripes and looked otherwise normal before, so that was something fun! And now Kikyou's met Kanna and the baby, thus putting Sesshoumaru in last place in "number of Naraku detachments encountered" (it's still only been Kagura at this point, right? Kouga's met Kagura and Hakudoushi now, but he's also never met Naraku himself, despite being after him ^_^*). Maybe Kanna will dig out her old and unused soul-sucking technique to lay the smackdown on Kikyou. I mean... a soul is all that girl's got anymore. |
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(Unbreakable Wall) |
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| Original Release Date: 03/24/04 | Review Date: 03/25/04 |
| Summary | |
| Miroku attempts to attack Naraku, but gets poisoned by the Saimyoushou. Inuyasha hits Naraku with a Kongousouha, but he teleports away to join Hakudoushi in glaring at Kagura. The Kongousouha cannot break through the ogre's stomach, so Inuyasha requests Kagome's Shikon shard... | |
| Review | |
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Gee, Naraku ran away from the fight again! Who would'a thunk it? And Miroku got Saimyoushou-ed again, preceeded by the stock "Don't do it, Miroku! You'll get poisoned!" that seems to accompany his use of the Kazaana 90% of the time.
Best Moment: I was kinda partial to Kagura's unvoiced "Oh sh**!" when Naraku appeared behind her. I mean, you thought she was screwed last week when she had Hakudoushi leering over her, but now she's, like, UBER screwed with Naraku joining the leering. And, of course, now we've got the whole question of what Inu plans to do with the Shikon shard. The series has shied away from having him use them up until now, but it might just be a last resort. Maybe he'll use it to power up Tessaiga and do a Shikongousouha. :P |
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(Ogre's Rock) |
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| Original Release Date: 03/17/04 | Review Date: 03/19/04 |
| Summary | |
| Sesshoumaru decides to take Kagura's advice and pokes around Goryoumaru's temple. Unfortunately, he's missed the party and everyone's gone, including Goryoumaru's body, interestingly enough. Elsewhere, Inuyasha's party follows Kagura to Ogre's Rock, inside of which is Naraku. Naraku taunts them with the Shikon no Tama, then brings the stone ogre, which they are currently inside of, to life. | |
| Review | |
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Well, hello again, Naraku! Inu's getting ready to beat on him again, and, of course, the chapter ends right there (agh!). I doubt this is the "final battle" or anything, and Naraku will likely just run away again, but... dunno.
Best Moment: The Sess/Rin contact. Before I'd read the chapter, I'd done my daily Japanese blog read-throughs, and all of them commented on how Sesshoumaru and Rin touched in this chapter. This might not seem like such a big deal, but they've never done such a thing before, besides when he brought her back to life. It was a minor touch; she was just clinging to his fluffy, but she's never even done THAT before. And, I admit, I'm a Sess/Rin fan in that father/daughter sort of way. Inuyasha's group reminds me of a group of buddies hanging out, but Sesshoumaru's group reminds me more of a family, where Sess is the dad, Rin is the kid, and Jaken is the mom (admit it, Jaken is one of those worrying mother hen types :P). This chapter also reminded me of something else funny about Sesshoumaru: he has punctuality issues. This chapter is just one more of a growing number of appearances where he shows up on the scene after everything important has already happened. Think about it: He found Goshinki after Inuyasha had already killed him. He went to pick up Toukijin, and Kaijinbou's already run off with it and killed Jaken. And the best one: He finds Tekkei's beheaded body after everyone's already gone to the boundary world and the river of blood has dried up. XD And, as I thought, it doesn't look like Goryoumaru's out of the picture just yet. Plus, it looks like Hakudoushi's about to do something Not Nice to Kagura, so we'll have to see where that's going. |
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(Goryoumaru's Death) |
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| Original Release Date: 03/10/04 | Review Date: 03/12/04 |
| Summary | |
| Goryoumaru attempts to shoot Hakudoushi, but his barrier deflects the attack. Inuyasha's group arrives on the scene just as Hakudoushi slices Goryoumaru's head off. Kanna and the baby appear, only to leave with Hakudoushi. Kagura tells Inuyasha that the baby is Naraku's heart, then follows after it. | |
| Review | |
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Well, given today's title, was there any doubt of what was going to happen? Yes, Goryoumaru bit the big one, and apparently he was just being used as a guard for the baby without his knowledge. Or something. Hopefully they'll eventually explain what that was all about, and even though the guy's dead, I'm still not 100% certain he's out of the picture yet. I mean, who's gonna suspect the dead guy? We still haven't been shown whatever happened to that Mouryoumaru "I'll give you a soul" thing. :P But, again, that's just me getting ahead of myself.
Best Moment: Uh... not really "best", but certainly the "WTF, he KILLED him?!" moment. I really didn't expect Goryou to go down that easily, but it was just *slice* *thud*, and then he was without head. Hakudoushi sure has a thing for decapitation. This chapter also had a couple of color pages, and was also a page longer than usual. Although... the color wasn't all that exciting, since Hakudoushi, Goryoumaru, and the Gyouja kids all wear white. Although, I think Kagura might have gotten a new outfit since the shredding of her last one. The print is a little different, and her obi is blue instead of yellow (granted, this is the manga coloring, which usually differs slightly from the anime, anyway). Although Hakudoushi got these weird shadows under his eyes, which made him even creepier-looking than usual. And, in the end, Kagura comes upon Kanna and the baby in a cave, and something tells me she's in deeeep shiznit. ^_^ |
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(Rakanzou) |
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| Original Release Date: 03/03/04 | Review Date: 03/03/04 |
| Summary | |
| Kagura tells Sesshoumaru where she thinks Naraku's heart is, then takes her leave of him. Meanwhile, Inuyasha's group is tracking down some youki that feels the same as the youki they felt around Goryoumaru's temple. They discover a cave full of Buddhist statues (Rakanzou) that are similar to the ones that surrounded Goryoumaru's temple. The cave is also filled with youkai remains that are turning to stone due to some sort of spell.
Meanwhile, Hakudoushi puts Kagura to work and the two of them descend upon Goryoumaru's temple. Hakudoushi wastes no time in slicing Goryoumaru through the neck... |
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| Review | |
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^_^ Man, the Sessho/Kagura fans are going to be have a field day with this chapter. And Rin certainly seems to want to get the two together, too. "Didn't you come here for Sesshoumaru-sama's help?"
And, therefore, the Best Moment goes to Kagura's rather ambiguous reply to that: "It's not like that. I just... one more time... before I'm gone..." ^_^* And, of course, the implied ending to that statement being, "...wanted to see him..." But... for all we know, she wanted to... go skinny-dipping one more time (yes, she's still topless for the first half of the chapter, you perverts). So, the purpose of this chapter, like a lot of chapters prior to this one, seems to be, "resolve nothing, imply more!" This chapter certainly gives the implication that Kagura's going to die, and everyone knows it. Sesshoumaru stated that Naraku knows that Kagura is betraying him. And, from the last chapter, we know Hakudoushi knows, and now he's hanging out with Kagura, so... I'm predicting a Fluffy to the Rescue, but that's just me being silly. :P |
|
(Kagura's Life) |
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| Original Release Date: 02/25/04 | Review Date: 02/26/04 |
| Summary | |
| Kagura attacks the temple and notices her youki crystal react. However, at that moment, Goryoumaru blasts a hole through her chest with his youkai arm. He then releases Kagome and tells her he grabbed her to protect her from the youkai. Kagome smiles and nods, but doesn't buy it.
Meanwhile, the injured Kagura has fallen into a river and is discovered by Rin. Kagura wakes up and tells Sesshoumaru that she's found Naraku's heart. Elsewhere, Hakudoushi questions Naraku about his reasoning for keeping Kagura alive. Naraku says he has one more task for her. |
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| Review | |
| ... Whoa. After a lackluster couple of chapters, this was certainly refreshing! Welcome back, plot! And welcome back, Sesshoumaru! It seems like wherever Sesshoumaru goes, plot follows.
Best Moment: Rin rescuing Kagura. Or, at least attempting to. Rin runs into the river to fish her out, but ends up falling in herself. Then Jaken uses his staff to try to pull her out, but he falls in as well, and all three of them get swept away. Sesshoumaru just stands blankly on the bank, saying ".....". That "....." was just the most appropriate reaction ever. His expression is just like, "I missed something, and now my minions are in the water." Another thing about this chapter is that it's the first time in a LONG time that there's been any sort of significant nudity in the manga. Kagura's hanging out topless for, like, half the chapter. Sesshoumaru has no reaction to this, naturally, since his hormone levels are probably lower than a piece of lint's. But still... rargh. We're finally back into a plot element. And it almost looks like Kagura's going to join Fluffy-tachi. And Naraku's suddenly sort of appeared again. Something's about to go down, and we'll just have to see how long it takes. |
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(Swarm of Corpses) |
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| Original Release Date: 02/18/04 | Review Date: 02/19/04 |
| Summary | |
| Inuyasha's group battles the dead youkai that Kagura has sent after them. Meanwhile, Goryoumaru has used up all his energy filling up his aardvark jars, so can't fight back. Kagome goes to check on him, but his youkai arm reacts to her Shikon fragment and he grabs her menacingly! | |
| Review | |
| Well, we've certainly got a random twist and a cliffhanger at the end of this week's chapter. It seems that it's not Goryoumaru himself who's after Kagome, but perhaps the youkai in his arm has taken hold of him. In the previous chapter, he mentioned that he used his holy powers to keep the youkai in check, but now that he's drained those, and with Kagome's Shikon fragment boosting the youkai's powers, the giant evil sea slug attached to his shoulder can take over.
The Best Moment, of course, being when Goryoumaru stood up all menacingly and grabbed Kagome in the last page. There was a lot of nice shading that's not usually present in the manga, so it gave the image a lot of depth. It's also making me rething the whole Gory/Mory connection, but... maybe this whole thing is just supposed to make me rethink that. :P Yeah, Kagura said that she didn't sense Fuyouheki there, but, uh... maybe Fuyouheki is hiding the baby's aura, and the aura around the temple is hiding Fuyouheki's aura ("These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along." :P). |
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(Grotesque Arm) |
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| Original Release Date: 02/11/04 | Review Date: 02/11/04 |
| Summary | |
| Goryoumaru has arm lasers! But he insists he's not a youkai, so invites Inu's group to stay with the kids. Then Kagura decides to pay everyone a visit. | |
| Review | |
| So, again, we appear to have a chapter in which not much happened. Goryoumaru blew up some youkai, Inu blew up some youkai, Gory said "wow", and everyone was happy. At least Kagura's back, so hopefully she'll reveal Gory's true colors soon. I mean, as innocent as he makes himself sound, I still think he's up to something. He did recognize Naraku's name, after all. Maybe he's, like, Musou Beta or something.
He did seem to have a valid excuse for killing Gakusanjin, though, that being that the kids couldn't tell a harmful youkai from a benign one just by looking at it. And Gory himself seems to hate youkai with a passion. So... dunno. Maybe he really is innocent and is just coming across as suspicious at every turn just to throw us. :P Best Moment: Kagura's Dance of the Dead. She hasn't done that in a looong time. Apparently, living youkai can't enter the temple, so she solves that problem rather efficiently. ^_^ |
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(Goryoumaru) |
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| Original Release Date: 02/04/04 | Review Date: 02/06/04 |
| Summary | |
| Inuyasha easily defeats the Gyouja kids and sends them running home. Kagura goes to investigate the remains of Gakusanjin. Meanwhile, the group follows the Gyouja kids and meets up with their leader, Goryoumaru. | |
| Review | |
| I feel like the summary needs to say more, but in all honesty, that's all that happened. Thankfully, the chapter seems to be a setup for something to happen next week, since it ends with a bunch of lesser youkai descending on Goryoumaru's temple, and he looks like he's getting ready to kick some Chimimouryou tail.
Speaking of Mouryou, Goryoumaru sure does look a heckuvalot like Mouryoumaru. Except his hair is black. And he's got the right proportions for a human, aside from the big, globular... thingy on his right arm. And he's clothed. But, he's got the same hairstyle, plus that scar running down his face. Best Moment: Inuyasha's way with children. The Gyouja try to prove that they are the most echidna of them all, but Inuyasha slices through their anteater ray gun blasts with the Tessaiga. He then proceeds to bop them all over the head (ala those three baby monkeys from episode 88) and beat on them to get some information out of them. Ah, Inuyasha's going to make a wonderful father someday. Provided that, being a hybrid, he's not sterile. :P |
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(Travellers) |
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| Original Release Date: 01/28/04 | Review Date: 01/29/04 |
| Summary | |
| Someone has defeated a giant. Gakusanjin, to be precise, and the Inu troop is hot on the trail of his murderers. Turns out he was killed by these three travelling kids who are taking out youkai wherever they go, and they've got their eyes on Inuyasha as their next victim. | |
| Review | |
| Semms like we've been getting a new and out-of-the-blue story element once every few weeks now. Now that we've finished up the Miroku/Sango diversion, you'd think we'd get back to one of the two dozen loose plot elements still hanging around, but no, we go off and find yet another new source of pondering. At least it brought back a little something familiar, in the form of Gakusanjin. The guy barely lasted two pages, though.
Best Moment: Not really "best", but certainly "most comment-worthy". The three youkai-slaying kids look like... some sort of medieval sentai group. Like the Sengoku Power Rangers or something. Complete with their killer Aardvark Jars. It's the face-plates, I know, but... why the heck are they wearing them in the first place? Best of all, the kids' leader is some guy named Goryoumaru. As if we didn't already have enough "maru" names in the series, here's another one! It's also odd that all the Maru Men so far have been rather effeminite, and in the one shot we get of Goryou, he's no exception. Apparently the kids are killing youkai for some sort of ritual which ol' Gory is performing, but what exactly this is has yet to be shown. |
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(Thread of Memory) |
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| Original Release Date: 01/21/04 | Review Date: 01/21/04 |
| Summary | |
| Sango runs off and the master of the lake kidnaps Shima. Sango reluctantly rescues the girl, angering the lake monster. He goes after Sango, but Miroku rescues her. With the youkai subdued, Shima apologizes for lying about her betrothal to Miroku, and all is well. | |
| Review | |
| Well, all's well that ends well. This chapter nicely wraps up this little diversion, so hopefully we'll get back into the meat of the plot next week (I'm still rooting for Jaken to get to do something).
Best Moment: PISSED MIROKU. After Sango rescues Shima, the master of the lake (Nushi-sama) ensnares Sango and declares that he'll keep her as his concubine. At that point, Miroku ofudas the fishman to high hell and gets SERIOUSLY ticked. This isn't one of those comical vein-pop "Oi..." sorts of things, this is bonafide SEETHING. "What the HELL did you just say? To take MY woman..." Of course, after that scene was just funny, as Miroku leaves the senseless Nushi-sama floating in the lake and paddles around after Sango. Inuyasha, on the other hand, is just standing, sword ready, on the shore, wondering when it's going to be HIS turn to kick some butt. ^_^* And for a race that supposedly hates humans, youkai sure do go around kidnapping pretty girls to be their mistresses a lot... |
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(Past Mistakes) |
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| Original Release Date: 01/14/04 | Review Date: 01/14/04 |
| Summary | |
| The youkai of the lake appears to take Shima has his bride, and he turns out to be a harmless-looking catfish man. Shima proclaims that she can't marry him because she's already betrothed to Miroku. The fishman gets ticked and turns into a GIANT catfish and starts causing a ruckus. | |
| Review | |
| It's uber Miroku/Sango tension time! With Shima continuously making advances on our dear Houshi-sama, and him not doing a whole lot to refuse them (then again, he's not accepting them, either), Sango's feeling pretty cruddy this entire chapter. He did seem to attempt to refute Shima's claim on him at one point, but was interrupted by another earthquake (in case you don't know, there's some sort of Chinese myth that says that catfish cause earthquakes).
Best Moment: Giant floaty Sango head of DOOM! Miroku is the only one allowed to spend the night in the house, while the rest of the party has to camp out outside. Shima's parents continue to attempt to set Miroku and Shima up, and a giant, scary Sango head appears behind Miroku. Turns out it's just Shippou, but it still looks funny. ^_^* The whole chapter seems to attempt to keep a lighthearted feel, despite the fact that the overall theme is of Sango and Miroku growing more distant. In fact, and the end, Sango practically renounces Miroku altogether. Something serious is gonna have to go down to patch this one up. |
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(Fiancee') |
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| Original Release Date: 01/06/04 | Review Date: 01/03/04 |
| Summary | |
| Kagura tells Sesshoumaru about Naraku's heart and Hakudoushi and leaves the Fuyouheki-detecting crystal with him (or rather with Jaken). Meanwhile, the heroes come upon a village being rocked by earthquakes, and the villagers recognize Miroku. He had apparently promised to marry a girl named Shima (i.e. he'd popped her the "bear my child" line) two years ago when he tended to her while she was ill. But now the youkai of the lake wants to take her as his bride as well. What's a houshi to do? | |
| Review | |
| Yes, I couldn't wait any longer, so I went forward in time to pick up this week's manga chapter.
Actually, stores apparently just started selling it early. Ah well. Works for me. ^_^ So, this week, we've got our first bonafide Sessho/Kagura "moment", courtesy of Rin. Kagura gives the whole spiel about Naraku's heart and the Fuyouheki and Sesshoumaru points out that she's just trying to use him. In her defense, Kagura starts praising his skill and power and leaves the crystal with him. Rin comes to the conclusion that all that praise must mean that Kagura likes him. ^_^* Jaken is decidedly unconvinced, and ends up as the caretaker of the crystal (oh man, I'll bet THAT's gonna come into play sooner or later, and Sessho'll end up having to come to the rescue again ^_^). On to the other merry band, Miroku's back to his butt-grabbing, after a long absence of his perversion. Interestingly, it's only Sango's butt he grabs, and only pops the "bear my child" request in a flashback. When Shima shows up, Miroku pulls a whole "nice to see ya!" attitude, but doesn't grope her or propose or anything. Best Moment: An earthquake rocks the house and Shima falls into Miroku's arms, saying she's scared. The background is all distorted, with Sango looking on angrily, and Miroku replies, "I'm scared, too. ... For a different reason."
By the end of the chapter, I'd gotten the feeling that this was one of those "The monster wants to marry the girl unless she brings forward proof that she's already taken" sorts of things, which is where Miroku ends up in a mess. When Miroku agrees to help with the youkai problem, the father exclaims, "Excellent! You shall be married at once!" |
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(Stolen Item) |
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| Original Release Date: 12/24/03 | Review Date: 12/24/03 |
| Summary | |
| Inuyasha unleashes another Kongousouha at Mouryoumaru, but Hakudoushi takes the hit instead. In the meantime, the remains of Mouryoumaru's tentacles attack Miroku and swipe the Fuyouheki-detecting crystals from him. Hakudoushi returns to Kanna and the baby with the crystals and leaves Mouryoumaru in their care. Meanwhile, Kagura approaches Sesshoumaru once again. | |
| Review | |
| Well, good, the battle's finally over. And everyone's still got their Shikon shards, although they've now lost their "new weapon against Naraku #2389", and Hakudoushi figures they can't find the baby anymore now. Well, Kohaku still has his, which is probably why Kagura propositions Sesshoumaru to find Naraku's heart at the end of the chapter.
Best Moment: I feel like a pervert for saying this, but naked Hakudoushi was just cute. Like he's gonna go get into the bath with his evil rubber ducky or something... Nevermind. In reality, he just got hacked to bits by the Kongousouha and reformed without clothes. Also, when Hakudoushi leaves Mouryoumaru with Kanna, she lifts the baby up to his face, like she's saying, "Kiss the baby!" Of course, what she REALLY says there ("I'll give you a soul") isn't much better, since it's like, "Now I'm going to make you a real boy!" That whole scene just came across a goofy to me, even though it really wasn't intended to. Although... whose soul is she going to give him? Sesshoumaru just showed up again, so... ... no, I'm not going there. Maybe Kanna just has a spare soul in her mirror somewhere. Or maybe she's gonna give baby a new body. Man, and there's no new chapter next week, either, due to the holiday, so we'll have to wait until January to find out! ::pout:: |
|
(Remains) |
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| Original Release Date: 12/17/03 | Review Date: 12/18/03 |
| Summary | |
| Well, apparently Mouryoumaru can fly. And has a big whip-arm thingy. Inuyasha Kongousouhas the arm to bits, but Mouryoumaru's haku take over the remains of the arm to become flying balls of flesh of death! So Kagome shoots them with her arrow. And the battle's not over yet. | |
| Review | |
| This week is the chapter in which nothing happened. Inu used Kongousouha, but he did that last week, too. So, there's nothing terribly exciting about this chapter.
Best Moment: Ginta and Hakkaku comment on how well Kagome and Kouga work together, and Inuyasha whallops them. I just like the look on his face. ^_^* Although, if the whole point behind Mouryoumaru was that he moved the most easily because he had the form closest to a human's... don't the wings kinda counteract that? Why would human souls be able to move wings? Anyway, if this battle with a supposedly random monster is taking THIS long, hopefully that means something important will come from the end of it, like Kouga losing his shards, or Hakudoushi biting the big one, or... well... SOMETHING. |
|
(Mouryoumaru) |
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| Original Release Date: 12/10/03 | Review Date: 12/10/03 |
| Summary | |
| Hakudoushi's monster, now known as Mouryoumaru, fights Kouga in an attempt to take his shards. Kouga tries to attack it, but all his blows are absorbed by Mouryoumaru's gelatin-like body. Inuyasha shows up and hits it with a Kongousouha, but Mouryoumaru has disappeared... to above them?! | |
| Review | |
| Well, this new monster's name is certainly a mouthful. Even worse than Kageroumaru. He even looks kinda like Kageroumaru, but bigger. The manga's certainly winding down, so it's quite possible that Kouga WILL have his shards taken by the time this battle completes. That would make Naraku have all but one, which Kagome got from Housenki back in the Otherworld Battle.
Best Moment: KOUGA USES HIS SWORD!! That freakin' thing that he's been carrying with him ever since he showed up FINALLY gets some use. Doesn't do much good, but it's apparently only ornamental, anyway. Also, Inuyasha's Kongousouha should get some mention, since I've been waiting for him to use that again ever since he learned it. So, I guess this is going to be more than a one-shot battle. Well, given that the monster's been given a name, I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise. Let's just hope it doesn't last TOO long, since plot is always better. To me. :P |
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(Prototype) |
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| Original Release Date: 12/03/03 | Review Date: 12/05/03 |
| Summary | |
| Inuyasha and Kagome encounter Kouga, at which time the usual spat takes place. Miroku discovers that the youkai that Kouga had been fighting only had "haku" (the physical aspect of a soul), but no "tamashii" (the mental aspect of a soul), and was therefore simply being animated like a puppet. These types of chimera-youkai have been turning up more and more frequently, and Hakudoushi confronts Kouga with one, intent on collecting Kouga's two Shikon shards. | |
| Review | |
| ... The summary kinda says it all about this week's chapter. I don't really have much more to add, other than it's now been confirmed that, yes, youkai do have souls.
The whole "haku" vs. "tamashii" thing is kind of hard to explain, although Miroku explains it right in the chapter. Basically, "haku" is that which allows your body to move, while "tamashii" is your heart (in the spiritual sense). This sort of thing could explain Kikyou's continued existence to a point, but if she lacks "tamashii", she probably still shouldn't have retained her own personality, memories, and free will. Best Moment: Kouga encounters Hakudoushi. Hopefully he doesn't underestimate the kid, but Hakudoushi has a pretty mean-looking chimera-youkai with him that looks kinda like Juuroumaru, but a lot bigger and a lot... less-clothed. Thankfully, Hakudoushi was strategically positioned so that we couldn't see anything, but... ::cough:: |
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(Haku) |
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| Original Release Date: 11/26/03 | Review Date: 11/28/03 |
| Summary | |
| A youkai that looks like a giant catfish named Haku is devouring human souls. Or, rather, it was, since Hakudoushi kills it, planning something evil with the souls Haku has collected. Elsewhere, Kouga comes upon the remains of youkai, including some that didn't feel like being dead anymore, so merged to become one big beast. Kouga kicks its butt, but something comes out of it... | |
| Review | |
| First off... KOUGA-KUN! Welcome back, wimpy wolf! After an absence of 54 freakin' chapters, he's finally back.
Hakudoushi looked strangely... cheerful in this chapter. It was really creepy. It was like, "Oooh, youkai!" Slice. "Wheee!" Poor Kohaku has to hang out with this kid. With all that Kohakyun has to put up with, it's amazing he's still sane (I've seen him referred to as the pet name "Kohakyun" on Japanese websites and thought it was cute. So sue me). Plus, Kagome... agh, I wanted to smack her. She needs to work on trusting people more. She's still upset about Inuyasha and Kikyou having some time alone from the previous chapter, even though nothing happened. She just seems to want to tell herself that something did. Ever stop to think maybe he's NOT betraying you anymore, girl? Best Moment: Kagome senses a Shikon shard. Two of them to be precise, indicating that it's Kouga. Inuyasha is thrilled ^_^*. |
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(Fuyouheki) |
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| Original Release Date: 11/12/03 | Review Date: 11/12/03 |
| Summary | |
| Kohaku and Kikyou square off, but Naraku suddenly appears behind Kikyou and ensnares her. Kikyou attempts to shoot him, but her arrow has no effect, and what's worse, she couldn't even sense him when he snuck up behind her. Naraku orders Kohaku to kill Kikyou, but before he can decide whether or not to obey, Inuyasha's team comes flying in, having sensed Kohaku's Shikon shard and Gakusanjin's protector stone, the Fuyouheki. Naraku retreats in a cloud of Shouki, per the usual, and Kagura takes off with Kohaku.
While in the air, Kohaku finally reveals his break with Naraku to Kagura. He tells her that the baby containing Naraku's heart is nearby, and that they should team up. Kagura agrees, since they're in the same situation. Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Kikyou chat about the Fuyouheki and the fact that Naraku's heart appears to be somewhere other than his main body. Kagome is depressed at the attention Kikyou is getting, but notes that the conversation is purely platonic this time around. Elsewhere, in a cave, Naraku gives the baby a small ball which is apparently the Fuyouheki, and asks the baby what he intends to do with it. The baby simply smiles evily. |
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| Review | |
| Whee, long chapter! And in color, too (at least the first three pages were)! Today's chapter was 23 pages instead of the usual 18, and a LOT happened, so the summary's longer than usual.
So, the Kikyou/Kohaku thing was pretty short-lived. Naraku just kinda came out of NOWHERE, and Kikyou was completely oblivious to him standing behind her. Though, I admit, the panel on the next page of Kikyou facing off with Naraku with her bow drawn was pretty cool-looking. Of course, props go to Kohaku in this chapter, who gets the Best Moment: Yobisute. "Yobisute" is basically referring to someone without a title, in this case he calls her "Kagura" instead of "Kagura-sama", which chinches it for Kagura that the kid's got his own mind back. Kohaku was pretty darn badass for most of the chapter, and his coolness factor just went up a couple notches in my book.
And the baby... is creepy. That darn smile at the end is just so... agh. It's the look someone gives right before they rip your throat out. The end of the chapter, to me, looked like: |
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(Gakusanjin) |
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| Original Release Date: 11/05/03 | Review Date: 11/08/03 |
| Summary | |
| Miroku speaks with the mountain, called Gakusanjin, and discovers that the protector stone that Naraku stole was used to hide the mountain youkai's demon energy. Gakusanjin gives Inuyasha's group some crystals that can be used to detect demonic barriers, thus perhaps helping them find Naraku. Meanwhile, Kohaku pursues -- and finds -- Kikyou. | |
| Review | |
| So, it's the "We've got a new weapon against Naraku #2389" chapter! They've tried everything under the sun, so something's bound to work one of these days! It's a race for the evil baby, whom now practically everyone is after (besides Kouga, since we still have no clue where he is), although it'll probably turn out that it's NOT the baby they need to be after, and it'll be another in a long line of wasted efforts.
Oy. Best Moment: Kikyou meeting Kohaku. That was an encounter I wasn't really expecting. Kohaku killed Kochou and Asuka, though. They were just paper dolls but... eh, I guess they outlived their usefulness. So... is Kikyou going to save Kohaku? I and practically everyone I know were all expecting Sesshoumaru to do it, but... eh, he still might. There's no telling what might happen next week, especially since it'll be a longer chapter due to the series's 7th anniversary. |
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(Vanished Mountain) |
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| Original Release Date: 10/29/03 | Review Date: 11/02/03 |
| Summary | |
| Apparently the parasitic insects are not Naraku's doing, and he orders Kagura and Kohaku to destroy them. Naraku also takes this opportunity to pilfer a protector stone and re-awaken a youkai that's been asleep for a couple centuries. The cranky mountain youkai takes out its frustrations on Inuyasha and company, but maybe it would be better to hear it out before retaliating. | |
| Review | |
| Welcome back, plot! And... we're right back into the whole Naraku/Hakudoushi/Kagura/Kohaku thingy. Kougaaaaa, where art thou? Of course, if Kouga comes back, it might very well indicate the end of the series, since he's got the only jewel shards left that aren't claimed by Naraku or Inuyasha (unless you count Kohaku, who's only half on Naraku's side).
Best Moment: Hakudoushi! Okay, he was only in, like, two panels in this chapter, but it seems like he might be on to Kagura's delinquent behavior. However, they strangely haven't caught on to Kohaku yet, or at least aren't showing that they have. And did anything ever come of Hakudoushi getting nailed with Kikyou's arrow a few chapters ago? He seems fine now... |
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(The Host) |
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| Original Release Date: 10/22/03 | Review Date: 10/24/03 |
| Summary | |
| Shippou is still possessed by the parasitic insect and is causing much ruckus around town. After a couple of hijinks, Inuyasha is finally able to swat the bug off him, and the group follows it to its nest. There they find a great number of the parasitic insects, and wonder what sort of host could be sustaining them. And could Naraku have anything to do with it? | |
| Review | |
| Well, this time we've got half filler, half plot. But the half that was filler was some of the craziest stuff in the series yet.
Best Moment: Shippou pulls out a little propeller, sticks it to Inuyasha's head, and he goes flyyyyiiinnggg awaaaayyyyy... ^_^*. Plus Shippou randomly turns into a chicken, and also spits up those little soot balls from Tonari no Totoro. This chapter also featured a random reappearance of Kikyou, sniping the little buggers out of the air with her arrows. If Kikyou's shown up again, we'll certainly be getting back into plot for the next chapter. |
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(Parasitic Pupae) |
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| Original Release Date: 10/15/03 | Review Date: 10/17/03 |
| Summary | |
| A kitsune god is rampaging through a village it is supposedly the protector of, and Inuyasha and the others discover the cause to be some sort of parasitic insect youkai that controls its hosts. Later, the same sort of insect gets ahold of Shippou, who also attacks the village. Since Shippou is just an ordinary kitsune and not a god, the villagers have no reservations about exterminating him. | |
| Review | |
| Mooore manga filler! This time it's about the much-neglected Shippou. While not nearly as insane as last week's chapter, this one still had quite a few funny moments, like Shippou transforming into his balloon form, eating Sango's stench pellets, then breathing them on Inuyasha.
Best moment: Shippou eating Kirara. Yes, Shippou actually eats Kirara, Miroku and Sango. The image is just hilarious, with Kirara's tails sticking out of balloon-Shippou's mouth and a confused "Ah" emanating from his stomach. Even though he's possessed by some evil parasitic insect... Shippou just isn't all that threatening ^_^* |
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(A Little Happiness) |
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| Original Release Date: 10/08/03 | Review Date: 10/11/03 |
| Summary | |
| After the encounter with the Zushi Rats, Kagome heads home to her own time. Inuyasha's hot on her heels, and manages to wreck her bike within five seconds of getting there. Kagome complains about Inuyasha to her friends, who demand to meet him. They follow her home and find Inuyasha at the shrine (wearing a bandana to cover his ears). After some conversation, they decide he's a pretty cool guy, and Kagome forgives him for his misdeeds earlier | |
| Review | |
| Well, we're finally back into the humor part of the story. After some gratingly angsty chapters dealing with Kohaku prior to now, this chapter was a much-welcomed change of pace. And it will likely go down in infamy, due to Kagome's three girlfriends finally meeting her "violent, jealous, two-timing boyfriend".
Although she's hardly in this chapter, the best moment goes to Sango, hands down. After getting fed up with Inuyasha's attitude, she commands him to "SIT!" ... Of course, that command only works when Kagome says it. Also, Inuyasha trying to fix Kagome's bike and then leaving it a tangled mess of metal was pretty cute. So were all the scenes of Inuyasha in the bandana. The chapter closed off pretty conclusively, meaning that the story could go just about anywhere next week. Hopefully Kouga will come back, since he's been absent from the manga for an entire YEAR now. What, did he get abducted by aliens or something? |
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