Thanks to support from Patreon, there will be a new feature on the blog starting next week called Missing Nostalgia! The first title I’ll be covering is Inuyasha!
When I was a high school freshman back in the early 2000s, I started to get interested in anime outside of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, which were the main two anime titles that I watched. Unlike other anime fans of my generation, I did not have regular access to Toonami, so my pool of shows to watch was very limited. However, I did have better access to Adult Swim, and I was interested by the commercials that they were showing for an anime titled Inuyasha. The show was pretty deep into its run around that time, so while I was a bit hesitant to jump into something mid-story, Inuyasha looked like it was right up my alley with a mix of supernatural romance and action.
However, I still wanted a second opinion. One day after school, I noticed an upperclassman I knew browsing an Inuyasha fan site, so I asked him if he could tell me a little bit about the show. Several hours of long unconnected rambling about how attractive certain characters were and loud shouting of “SIT BOY” later, I stumbled away dazed and with a slight fear of the Inuyasha fanbase. The guy didn’t do anything wrong; he just overloaded me with information when a simple synopsis and general recommendation would’ve been fine. But in the end, I never watched the show while it was airing in the US.
Fast-forward to today and Inuyasha is now a nostalgia title for a lot of fans of my generation. In fact, I've heard several anecdotes that it was a gateway anime title into fandom for the people who weren't swept in by Pokemon, Sailor Moon, or Yu-Gi-Oh. I've also heard many fans speak of it fondly, which has made me feel bad for dismissing the show just because of one encounter with someone who was just a little too excited about sharing it.
Those thoughts led to the idea for this feature. I'm going to watch all of the episodes of Inuyasha that are available through legal streaming and write episodic posts as I go. The title is inspired by the fact that I hold no nostalgia for this series despite being part of the generation of fans that grew up while it was airing in the US. Even all this time later it still sounds like something that I would enjoy, and I want to see the series that inspired so many fans to get more involved with anime fandom.
Before I start posting next week, I'd like to set a ground rule. Please do not spoil the show for me. I have forgotten the vast majority of the details that my upperclassman attempted to explain to me all those years ago, and the rest of what I do know is probably surface level at best. I know that Kagome is from another world, that Inuyasha follows dog commands (?), and that there's a character whose name I can't spell or pronounce that all the fangirls go crazy for, although I'm not sure why just yet. The point is, I'm going into this knowing next to nothing and I think it’ll be more fun to watch and write about this show if I don’t know what’s coming next.
I’m not completely sure what I’m getting myself into, but I hope that you will enjoy reading the posts! The first post will be on the blog at this time next week. I hope to see you then!
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Images from Neon Alley via Hulu. Please support the official simulcast.
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