Missing Nostalgia: Inuyasha Episode 1--Centipedes and Dog Ears and Monsters! Oh My!

Directed by Michael Bay

The first of nearly one hundred and seventy episodes… Here we go!

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Previously: Intro Post
Next: Episode 2

  After opening with a literal bang, the show very quickly introduces Inuyasha and a shrine maiden named Kikyo. Inuyasha stole some kind of gem from the shrine that can make him “a real demon” (no word yet on what he means by that), but Kikyo stops him by pinning him to a tree with an arrow. For unexplained reasons, Kikyo is mortally wounded and dies seconds later, but not before instructing a girl with an eyepatch to burn the gem with her body.

If it feels like I’m explaining this quickly, it’s because it happens very fast—I had to go and look up Kikyo’s name because I didn’t catch it during the scene. This all takes place in the space of about two and half minutes, so while I was intrigued I was also worried that the whole episode would keep up this breakneck pacing. It’s okay to take some time, Inuyasha, you have over a hundred episodes to fill!

Anyway, the episode then flashes forwards to the…future? Present? Not sure how the timeline works here… Regardless, the episode then goes to present day where the viewers are introduced to the heroine, Kagome. She lives in a shrine with her family, but doesn’t seem to take much stock in the legends and history surrounding the place. I can’t exactly blame her, since the show sets up her grandpa—the person telling her these legends—as a hack who sells knockoff Sacred Jewel keychains to tourists. Not exactly mystical.

BURN

However, not much of Kagome’s everyday life is shown before the plot kicks in. Her brother says that he heard a weird sound by the old well, and Kagome goes to investigate. At first they think it’s the cat, but then something in the well reacts to Kagome, bursting open the lid and pulling her in. And that’s when things get weird.

I NEED AN ADULT

A multi-armed centipede woman who’s inside the well for some reason demands the Sacred Jewel from Kagome. Understandably freaked out, Kagome pushes her away and ends up taking one of centipede lady’s arms with her thanks to a strange light.

I SEE WHY THIS WAS A LATE NIGHT TV SHOW NOW

But despite that bit of weirdness, Kagome is able to pick herself up pretty fast, and she climbs her way out of the well. When she reaches the top, she realizes that she’s not at the temple anymore and is instead surrounded by an unfamiliar forest. This results in a line that uses the most obvious reference for this situation:

  This is a good time to mention that for maximum nostalgia potential, I’m watching the dub version of Inuyasha. The idea behind Missing Nostalgia was to experience the version of this show that so many people fell in love with, and that includes the dub. And to be honest, it’s not too bad so far. However, a lot of the voices in this first episode feel a bit flat.

It’s easy to guess from context or word choice what kind of emotion was supposed to go into those lines, but a lot of them are read deadpan instead. That said, I’ve watched enough dubs to know that they tend to improve as the actors get to know their characters better. It also feels well cast; none of the voices seem to be ill-suited for their character’s age of personality. My problem is the deadpanning…and the puns.

For those of you who don’t remember, a lot of 90’s and early 2000’s dubs were filled with puns. I’m not sure why this was the case. Maybe dub script writers felt that anime wasn’t cartoony enough. Of course, that’s assuming that the puns weren’t there to begin with. However, I’m assuming that the puns in the Inuyasha dub script were written in, since a lot of them so far don’t seem to take the mood of the scene into account.

But I’ll get more into that later. For now, Kagome decides to explore the forest, and she finds a tree that was apparently a landmark next to the shrine back home. But when she gets there, she discovers Inuyasha, still pinned to the tree by an arrow and now covered in vines and tree roots. So how does Kagome react to this new situation?

This is why no one takes anime seriously.

Why is her first response to rub his ears?! I’d try to wake him up or pull the arrow out—not necessarily in that order, but I’m pretty sure that my first thought wouldn’t be how squishy his ears looked! Also, this is a pretty odd response in general to seeing something like this. I was at least expecting Kagome to show some surprise at her landmark having a new addition, but nope, straight to ear rubbing! Why was that the first thing that came to Kagome’s mind?

It seems like the nearby village shares my opinion on the ear rubbing, since they assume that Kagome is a demon and capture her. When she’s taken back to their village, an older woman with an eyepatch figures out that Kagome has the Sacred Jewel. She’s revealed to be the girl from the beginning of the episode, and sets the timeframe as fifty years after Kikyo’s death.

*unintentional Tokyo Ghoul flashbacks*

But before any of this can be discussed further, the centipede lady shows up in the village, destroying buildings and forcing Kagome into the forest. When she enters, Inuyasha wakes up.

This reveals two things: One, that Kagome is either the reincarnation or descendant of Kikyo (my money is on reincarnation), and two, that Inuyasha is not that observant. If he woke up because Kikyo’s "blood" was approaching, then why didn’t he wake up earlier when Kagome was messing with his ears? Also, when Kagome shows up, Inuyasha insists that Kagome is literally Kikyo until she gets closer. And despite seeming to want to get revenge when he initially wakes up, it looks like Inuyasha’s relationship with Kikyo was more complicated than that…

There seem to be some unresolved issues here

But all of this will have to be explored in a different episode, since after that conversation centipede lady attacks again, biting Kagome open and taking the Sacred Jewel for herself.

YOU'RE ACTING PRETTY CALM ABOUT THIS

AND WAS THAT ANOTHER PUN

In the end, Kagome frees Inuyasha by pulling the arrow out, and he defeats creepy centipede lady. But as soon as Kagome gets the jewel back, Inuyasha turns around and demands it from her, resulting in my favorite line from the episode and the finale for now:

The title lied!

Even though I’ve only seen one episode so far, I think I’m going to like Inuyasha. I feel like I’m nitpicking the show already (WHY EAR RUBBING), but I am having fun watching it. I can see why so many people were impressed by it. While some parts do feel dated, I wasn’t bored watching it. I am a little concerned that this might turn into a damsel-in-distress kind of setup, but the show already feels different enough that I’ll be surprised if it does go in that direction. In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing how Kagome convinces the title character who’s out for her blood to leave her alone. Until next week!

I'm sure I won't hear any future villain say that line again!

~

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Inuyasha images from Neon Alley via Hulu. Please support the official stream.