Just when I thought the anime was the worst that we could get, this manga proves the opposite to me. It's the biggest insult to everything Rumiko wrote in Inuyasha: completely different tone, characters with a radical personality change (Sota, his mother and Kaede are the best examples I can name), excessive flashbacks in practically every chapter... Here I'll mention several negative points that are coming to my mind at this very moment, but be sure that there's more. NOTE: I won't quote the name of the characters in this review but you can pretend I do. None of the characters that will be mentioned
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here are actually the same as those with the same name in the original work.
- When the manga begins, we see a Towa who's loved and praised by other school mates, but also feared by others. The reason? Her eyes. Not joking. Something that comes from both of her parents, as stated by her (I'll come back to this part later), and makes her beautiful is "scary"... Not her hair colour, not her insane strength, not her behaviour that doesn't resemble either her bio or adopted parents at all... Her EYES. In the same chapter, we can see Setsuna's eyes being called "even more scary". Yes, you're supposed to believe it even if what you have in front of your face isn't screaming "be afraid" at all.
Generally speaking, the way she's written is inconsistent, just like in the anime. You have her saying she doesn't feel like she belongs in the modern era in chapter 1, around chapter 3-4 she says both eras are her home, and after that she never mentions the modern era. In fact, everything she misses from there is introduced in the feudal era one way or another. For example, she gets hot water with a demon bone early in the story. She also feels like your average shounen protagonist, something I didn't feel with the anime Towa despite everything they did wrong with her, and her personality isn't defined as it should. After almost 2 years, I can't quite describe this character with more than a couple of words.
- According to Shiina, the author of this story, the explanation as to why half demons act as bloodthirsty beasts is their demon ascendance. This goes against everything Rumiko wrote about Inuyasha himself in the original manga, not to mention Shiori, Jinenji... Are all half demons beasts who love to fight? Did Inuyasha fight because of that or because he had to survive? The answers are obvious for me.
- The original story showed us that time flows the same way in both eras. This is why Kagome could go back to her era in time for her exams without having to do any calculation. In chapter 1 and 2, this is completely smashed just for the sake of making "comedy".
- Kagome's mother was a very calm woman in Inuyasha, but here she's screaming as if she was being killed or something. In other words, overreacting. Sota was a very calm person as well and he certainly wasn't someone who would react in such an explosive way as we see in a flashback about Towa and her school. Kaede was also calm enough to not scream and cry the way she did in chapter 2 over reuniting with Towa when her sister Kikyo died... Why? Why is Shiina changing the personalities of characters he didn't create? It feels disrespectful towards the original work and it has no real purpose in the story. Also, it's not funny. The only reason I can find is that this is the same he's been doing in all his original works, specially in Zettai Karen Children, and he's unable to do real good comedy.
- The reason why the girls want to save their parents and reunite with them is just because a talking tree asked them to. Their childhood were totally happy and the parents being absent had no impact on them. I know the anime didn't handle this part properly, specially when it comes to Towa, but seeing Moroha's past you could get she felt kinda empty and Setsuna's case was similar. Here this was completely erased. I can't forget about the fact that Towa also wants to meet them because they gave her "scary eyes", and Moroha saw having a lot of "Kagomes" that weren't the original one as something completely normal... Like yeah, be serious, Shiina.
- The guy can't draw Sesshomaru in a way that reflects the same as Rumiko's art. His design is changed several times in order to make him more handsome. I wouldn't say he's remotely close to Rumiko's Sesshomaru, but right now (chapter 19) he's better than the design he had during the first chapters. Even so, why does he have to touch his mofumofu like that!?
- Shiina introduces a lot of historical references and details, such as Rin wearing a Hojo clan kimono, to seem knowledgeable and smart. It has no good or real purpose and it makes you feel like you're reading something that definitely has nothing to do with Inuyasha, where historical mentions could be counted with the fingers of just one hand. Onsen, soy sauce, food... What is this, Shiina? A nekketsu manga or a text book? I can't forget about the old fashioned Japanese, another point that wasn't present in the original manga the way it is here, and Sota being used as a self insert character by Shiina. I can't believe he was saving a lot of notes about the Sengoku for a kid who wasn't even born yet.
- You're supposed to laugh at Inukag's (lack of) sexual life at one point in the early chapters. As if the real Kagome written by Rumiko would say such a dialogue and Inuyasha was the kind of work to feature this, suuure.
- Shiina has an obvious bias towards Inukag (or whatever he thinks Inukag is). That's fine, except when this bias appears in the writing of a work where they're supposed to be supporting characters and their daughter is a main character, but not THE main character aka the protagonist. Moroha is given more attention and focus, specially in the first chapters, and there was a time when all Shiina could talk about on his blog and twitter was Inukag and Moroha. No mentions of the others. This isn't professional at all, specially when you consider the fact that Rumiko herself didn't want a sequel where an Inukag kid was the focus. I don't care if it's an AU.
- If you think Sesshomaru was a bad father or at least a questionable one in the anime, get ready for this manga. You'll see a man who's flying over the village where her daughters are just born, he goes away for no good reason and then sends Jaken to give them gifts "offscreen". He's not there when his whole family is running away from an important threat, he's not there during the short time the girls are with their parents because "he's too mighty to change diapers". Never mind that he can just be around until the comet needs to be destroyed and his presence would protect his family more than one "servant" who happens to be related with the big bad guys of this story... The real Inuyasha and the real Sesshomaru wouldn't take Riku as their servant, or even think of him as their father's acquitance and someone they can rely on.
I could add more, but I think all these points are good enough to let others see that this manga isn't the marvel that some fans claim it is due to personal bias and maybe hatred towards the anime, which isn't much better than this AU. Shiina is not a good mangaka, something you can also see if you read his previous works, and that's the reason why this manga doesn't fix all the stuff that the anime did wrong. Instead, it keeps introducing new absurdities. I swear I can just think of two things that this manga did better. It's one of the worse mangas I've ever read and I don't recommend it to Inuyasha fans. If you cherish the original story, just pretend both versions of Yashahime doesn't exist.
Mar 28, 2023
Just when I thought the anime was the worst that we could get, this manga proves the opposite to me. It's the biggest insult to everything Rumiko wrote in Inuyasha: completely different tone, characters with a radical personality change (Sota, his mother and Kaede are the best examples I can name), excessive flashbacks in practically every chapter... Here I'll mention several negative points that are coming to my mind at this very moment, but be sure that there's more. NOTE: I won't quote the name of the characters in this review but you can pretend I do. None of the characters that will be mentioned
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