InuYasha (犬夜叉), also known as InuYasha, a Feudal Fairy Tale (戦国御伽草子 犬夜叉 Sengoku Otogizōshi InuYasha), is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008. The series follows the half demon, InuYasha, and a teenager from Tokyo, Kagome Higurashi, who is transported to the Sengoku period after falling into a well in her family shrine., where she meets InuYasha. When a monster from that era tries to take the magical Jewel of Four Souls embodied in Kagome, she accidentally splits the Jewel into various shards, which are dispersed across Japan. InuYasha and Kagome start travelling to recover it before a powerful demon named Naraku finds all the shards. InuYasha and Kagome gain allies during their journey named Shippo, Miroku,and Sango. They also gain enemies throughout the journey. In contrast to the typically comedic nature of many of Takahashi's previous works, InuYasha deals with darker subject matter, using the setting of the Sengoku period to easily display the violent content. Earlier works by Takahashi with more dramatic and serious themes include her work, Mermaid Saga - though it is considerably darker in nature than Inuyasha - and many of her short stories.
The manga was published in North America by Viz Media with all of its 56 tankōbon volumes having already been released. The manga was adapted into two anime television series produced by Sunrise. The first was broadcasted for 167 episodes on Yomiuri TV in Japan from October 16, 2000 until September 13, 2004 and was directed by Masashi Ikeda for the first forty-four episodes and by Yasunao Aoki for the remainder. The second series, called InuYasha: The Final Act (犬夜叉 完結編, InuYasha Kanketsu-hen), began airing October 3, 2009 to cover the rest of the manga series and ended on March 29, 2010. Viz Media licensed the two anime series, having released the former in DVD volumes and aired most of its episodes. A total of four feature films and an original video animation have also been released. Other merchandise include video games and a light novel.
