Search - Inuyasha - Down the Well (Vol. 1) on DVD

The first three episodes in Takahashi's epic tale.

arxane | Oklahoma City, OK United States | 10/31/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rumiko Takahashi is one of the, if not the, most famous female manga artist in the world. With titles such as "Ranma" and "Maison Ikokku" in her resume, she has established a worldwide following and has garnered a reputation as the Queen of Romantic Comedy. Her latest undertaking, "Inu-Yasha", has already gained a cult following in the US and, like her other manga series, has been made into a successful anime series that has just a strong following in America. American publisher Viz, having already published twelve volumes in the US, now brings us the anime.At first glance, "Inu-Yasha" seems like a typical anime series. Kagome, a Japanese high school girl, is transported to the feudal age of Japan through a magical well, where she unwittingly awakens a cocky, imprisoned half-demon called Inu-Yasha. You see, Inu-Yasha was after the Shikon no Tama, a powerful jewel that could grant him his wish to become full demon, but a village priestess called Kikyo stopped him with a mystical arrow. Suffering from untreatable wounds, Kikyo decides to die and take with her to her grave the Shikon no Tama. But get this: Kagome is apparently Kikyo's reincarnation, and she just so happens to have the Shikon no Tama with her! Then, through a bizarre set of circumstances, the jewel ends up shattering and scattering all over Japan, and now Inu-Yasha and Kagome have to team up and find these pieces.Typical, huh?Not quite.You see, "Inu-Yasha" is a lot deeper than the first set of episodes will have you believe. Sure, it looks like something you'd find in just about every other fantasy anime series out there, but truthfully, the meat of the series is found in later episodes, when Takahashi demonstrates her true (if not bizarre) genius. But even with this in mind, the first three episodes found on this DVD do a really good job of starting the series and drawing you in. The characters are likable and three-dimensional, and the plot is executed at a reasonable pace. And with Takahashi's unique sense of humor spread all over, you know this series is over-the-top as well as dark and intriguing. Overall, the first three episodes are well done and should give the viewer a general idea of what to look forward to, even though Takahashi's plot twists are completely unexpected.Visually, "Inu-Yasha" is one of the cleanest series around. The artwork isn't as clean as, say, that of "X: TV", but it's definately sharp and crisp enough to make an average viewer go "wow!". Character models present marvelous representations of their manga counterparts, backgrounds are vibrant and fully detailed, and movement is smooth and fluid. In short, "Inu-Yasha" is a beautiful series that does justice to its source material.Sound wise, the music is a beautiful compliment to the visuals. It's not the most memorable of soundtracks, but Kaoru Wada's melodies are beautiful and wistful and can get emotional when they need to be. The one complaint I have, however, is that the songs tend to repeat themselves quite often and some songs are often nothing more than variations of other songs. But overall, the series' soundtrack has no real complaints. And the opening and ending...well, the ending song is really haunting and ends each episode on a perfect note, but who's idea was it to use a Korean boy-band song as the opening?As for the English dub...to put it simply, the dub is above average. It does have its problems, but overall it's enjoyable. Richard Cox does a marvelous job as the half-demon Inu-Yasha, bringing the cocky anti-hero to life wonderfully. Monica Stori, unfortunately, stumbles at the beginning as the heroine Kagome. Many complain about her sounding too young, but I feel her biggest problem was that at first she didn't feel comfortable with her role. In later episodes she improves remarkably, but starting out she sounds somewhat stale and flat. Pam Hyatt does a respectable job as Kaede, but she can sometimes sound unenthusiastic and it's somewhat weird that she speaks in Old English and no one else does......which brings me to the dub's biggest problem: the script, written by Trish Ledoux, who also wrote the script for "Ranma". Trish has an annoying habit of using "Trishisms," which are cliches and catchphrases, in her scripts and it's these Trishisms that bring the dub down. Adding in her own "touches" such as the phrase, "Toto, I don't think we're in Tokyo anymore" makes the script feel dumbed down. Granted, the script doesn't drastically alter the story in any way, but these Trishisms are the biggest thing holding the quality of the English track back.So in general, for die-hard fans of the show, the dub will be debatable because they associate the characters so much with the original Japanese voices and thus anything that doesn't fit will render the dub a travesty; nitpicking and complaints such as "they pronounce names differently" or "this voice sounds off" or "Kagome says, 'Sit, boy!'" will definately be popping up in many reviews to come. But for casual anime fans who won't have to go into the show with this kind of baggage for an incredibly popular series, the dub should satisfy.Overall, the first volume of "Inu-Yasha" is a solid release. The only complaint I have about the show is that the content of the series was toned down from the manga to meet television standards (no full frontal nudity, not as much violence, etc.), but that's only a minor complaint. Many will complain about the episode count per DVD, but just remember that the Japanese got only two episodes on the first disc and you may feel better (maybe). But if you're still unsure as to whether you'll like this series or not, you can catch it on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block in a very, very lightly edited format. And since the show gets better as the series progresses over its 90+ episodes (it's still running in Japan, by the way), there will be plenty more "Inu-Yasha" to get excited about in the future."

The Start of a Long, yet Entertaining Epic Story

Carl Cheng | Sunnyvale, CA USA | 09/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The famed Rumiko Takahashi's -- known for her very popular series like Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, and Urusei Yatsura -- most recent masterpiece is the story that encompasses many different genres, a sample being: love, action, suspense, and comedy. You wonder how epic the story is? Inu Yasha still has yet to conclude in Japan. Right now, it is currently at episode 86 with no signs that it's ready to finish anytime soon. The second Inu Yasha movie is scheduled for this winter in Japan.The series is named after a half-human, half-demon called Inu Yasha. One day on her fifteenth birthday, Kagome entered a well that was inside her family's shrine. Little did she know that she would be transported to the past in a time where many youkai (demons) dwell. There she realizes that she is the reincarnation of a past priestess named Kikyo who had the destiny to purify and protect the Shikon no Tama, a jewel that manifests and increases the evil desires and power of youkai and evil humans. Kagome wandered throughout the new place where she had arrived and found Inu Yasha, a dog-like half-youkai that Kikyo had sealed before her untimely death. Kagome had discovered the Shikon no Tama hidden within her while an encounter with a youkai. However, the Shikon no Tama had been shattered and dispersed after battling a different youkai. After learning more about this time, Kagome eventually accepted her destiny to find and protect the Shikon no Tama (while still juggling school work) as well with the help of a likeable cast of strong warriors.As the story progresses, it branches out a lot and becomes deeper and more complicated. New enemies, new friends, and new loves are all revealed. The only problem with this anime that I had was the addition of filler episodes. I can take a few but they just seemed to have a series of them or at the worst times. They ruined the progression of the story especially when it just started to pick up. Even though they are there to help the character development, when the series has reached a length of like eighty episodes, viewers feel they know the characters well enough already.The music is very well done. Some background tracks are very nice and smooth that help express the mood. The battle, action, and suspense scenes do help increase tension. The vocal songs have a nice variety of mood settings with the lyrics expressing the tone of the series at that certain point of the series. All the songs are avextrax done by Avex, a well-known Japanese music company with famous artists and groups like Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, and Do As Infinity. The opening song is called, "I want to change the world," performed by V6, which has a nice mellow tune to it that fits the start of a story and adventure. The ending song is called, "My Will," by Dream that is a very nice song. It expresses feelings through an upbeat version of a slow song. It has an upbeat tempo but is slowed down and performed with a nice, smooth voice.Viz brings a reasonable dub to Inu Yasha. Inu Yasha is now being shown on Cartoon Network's late block of more mature anime, Adult Swim. Currently Adult Swim features other anime like Cowboy Bebop and Yu Yu Hakusho. The voices fit with the characters. I had a few problems with some translations and pronunciations. They translated the phrase, "Osuwari ('Sit' as a command)" as "Sit Boy." I can understand the need to fill in the syllables but it just sounds weird to me. They pronounced a name very oddly. They pronounced Kaede (emphasis on the Ka) Ka-EE-deh with a VERY strong emphasis on the 'e.' But I do commend them on trying to keep the old Japanese feel to it by having terms like Shikon no Tama remain in Japanese.Final Note: I think Viz will pull out a very solid release and with the story being solid as well, many will continue to pick up this series in the future. The only problem I have is the three episode per DVD release. It's a good thing that the price has been dropped five dollars however, with such a long series, I don't think three episodes per DVD will cut it. I hope that maybe later, Viz will pull it up to four or five episodes per each DVD."

SIT BOY!!! ...

starrdragon | Castle of Eternity | 11/16/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have read most of the Inu-Yasha manga, and that is what first really got me into Inu-Yasha. After each vollume of the manga I had to pick up and read the next one. Well the anime seris of Inu-Yasha is just as compelling. If you are a fan of fantasy anime,or humor fantasy you will love this seris. Well the story mainly revolves around the two protagonists, Inu-Yasha, and Kagome. Inu-Yasha is a half demon half human creature. It is his most intamite disiear. But to become a full fledged Demon, Inu-Yasha needs the power of the Shikkon no Tama (in english, Jewel of Four Souls). Yet to get to the Shikkon no Tama, he needs to get past a village preistess Kikyo who gaurds and proctects the Jewel. Inu-Yasha steals the Jewel but pays the price. After a battle with the skilled priestess Kikyo, Inu-Yasha is cursed. And with the curse he can never break a deep slumber he was imprisoned in.Kikyo was also heavly effected by the battle with Inu-Yasha. She wounded so terrible, that she knew that there was no chance of recovery. Kikyo told her younger sister Keade to burn the Shikkon no Tama with her remains, so that the Jewel will never again fall into the hands of evil. And that marks the death of Kikyo, or dose it?Enter Kagome, and ordinary 15-year-old teenager that lives in Tokyo with her family. Kagmoe's family owns a Shinto Shrine, and her grandfather is kind of crazy when it comes to anchient legends and curses. Well one day when Kagome is heading to school she gets pystracked, and falls down a magical well into the anchient world that Inu-Yasha is from. When Kagome first enters this new world, she has her very first encounter with Inu-Yasha. Yet Inu-Yasha is still under the curse of Kikyo, so Kagome dose some rather funny things (i won't give it away). But then Kagome is caputred by the natives of a near by village, which is runned by the Priestess Keade, Kikyo's sister. And soon another demon shows up, demandnig the Shikkon no Tama. Kagome is still totaly oblivious the the secret that hides in her body. The demon called Mistress Centipede chases Kagome into Inu-Yasha's forest, where the half dog demon has awakened from the curse put upon him. But he is not home free. When Kagome approcehes Inu-Yahsa, a button clicks in Inu-Yasha's head that Kagome is Kikyo's reiencarnation......That is the basic plot for this DVD. I had to end it at that, because at the rate I was going I would end up spoiling the whole DVD for you. When I first head that Inu-Yasha was going to be dubbed into English, I wasn't exactly thrilled. No offence to dubb fans, but the English version of most anime is not worth all that. Well the English on Inu-Yasha was surprisingly really good. Some of the better dubbing that I have seen. With a hilliarous sence of humor, I was practicly crying because I was laughing my ... off. Kagome repetedly dose somthing to Inu-Yasha, and it is hillarious, I won't give it away, but here is a hint..."SIT BOY!"The reason just to get a DVD player or a DVD rom is this anime DVD. It is well worth the price"

Excelent anime, terrible price

Shelly Anne Smith | 10/14/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's ninth grader Kagome's birthday, and it's just an ordinary day. As she's going to school, she stops at her dry well to look for her cat. All of a sudden, a demon grabs her and pulls her down the well to fudial Japan where she meets the dog-like half demon by the name of Inuyasha. The music is fantastic and is in my CD player very often. Time warping, half demons, plenty of action, and memorable characters will give you a pleasurable ride in this one-of-a-kind anime! There's no reason why you shouldn't buy this DVD!'...Is what I would say if the price was as good as the anime. Don't get me wrong, I rate the story 5+ stars and meant everything I just said, but with only 3 episodes per disk, you will be spending a lot of your money trying to get this whole series. There's not even any worthwihile extras. Just line drawings and Japanese 'commercials' for each episode on the disk (which is just the episode preview, but with Inuyasha saying it instead of Kagome in Japanese, with no subtitles). The only good extras on this disk are the opening and ending songs with no text. But think about the price again for a second. It would take 5 disks to get only the first 15 episodes. You just spent $125 and all you got was 15 episodes. If that's not bad enough, the series lasts 110+ episodes and is still currently running in Japan. $25 per disk doesn't seem like too good of a price anymore, does it?If you want to buy this series without wasting your life savings, do what I do. Buy the Japanese subtitled imported DVDs. You will only end up watching the Japanese version anyway when you realize how terrible the English version is. You can get them on a lot of anime stores or Ebay. On Ebay they're only around $30 per set, and on the first set there's 25 episodes. Big difference, isn't it? There's currently 7 box sets out right now. And if you absolutely MUST have the English version too, you can get the bilungual imports, which are in anime stores and Ebay as well. There's only one out right now (it's new), but there's 18 episodes on it for about the same price as the Japanese ones.The price for these DVDs is what turns off a lot of people to this great anime. I am only trying to stop it from happening by giving you a better way to get the Inuyasha series. I stupidly wasted $... on the first 5 of these DVDs. Don't be a fool and make the same mistakes that I did."