Inuyasha: The Final Act

[TriLink]

Inuyasha is a show that pissed me off for a lot of reasons. The first 20 episodes or so laid the foundation for what could have been a truly epic series, but then it got sidetracked.

A lot.

I'm pulling this number out of my ass mind you, but I'd venture to guess that 40% of the entire series was nothing but filler. And the ones that weren't technically filler were just the same rehashed bit over and over. The story never really seemed to be moving forward, and it never seemed like Naraku was any closer to being beaten. And for some crazy reason, the show ended 160 episodes in, unfinished and unremarkable. I think the fact that they couldn't tell the story with that many episodes is what pisses me off more than anything. Enter "Inuyasha: The Final Act".

Several years later, the creators finally got off their asses and decided to give the show a proper ending by animating the final chapters of the manga. I've watched the first two episodes, and you know what? They ain't half bad. Action is plentiful, and they don't dick around with the story. It's short and straight to the point (thank god). If they can keep it up, I might just have to make downloading "Final Act" a new weekly tradition. Thoughts?

[Xard]

but wasn't the manga too pretty much "FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-PLOT-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-PLOT-PLOT-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-PLOT-FILLER-FILLER" ad infinitum?

Heck, I even thought manga was still running

[Defectron]

"FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-PLOT-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-PLOT-PLOT-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-FILLER-PLOT-FILLER-FILLER" ad infinitum?

VERY YES

Fortunately they squeezed at least an entire books worth of story into the last episode, possibly more cutting some of that out, normally I would be pissed when people do stuff like that (like in deathnote) but it was ok here, because who needs more episodes with just the same shit going on over and over again.

In other news

NOOOOOO KAAAGUUURAAA!!!

[Xard]

heh, I read Inuyasha manga when I was younger for about 3 volumes. Even then it started to annoy me (or should I say I had bad hunch, it being Rumiko manga and all) a bit and I kept hearing about how it descended into never ending fillers that kept on going like a zombie

[Sachi]

In my opinion, InuYasha should have been no more than 50 episodes tops, with nearly all the filler removed, and the rest is plot that isn't rehashed. Sure filler is okay sometimes, but InuYasha just mad it ridiculous.

What InuYasha also made ridiculous was it's need to have the characters explain every minor detail that's going on. "WHAT'S THAT? HIS FACE IS GETTING RIPPED OFF!", "INUYASHA IS FALLING!", "WE'VE BEEN ON THE SEARCH FOR JEWEL SHARDS, AND I MUST TELL YOU THIS EVERY 5 EPISODES SO YOU WON'T FORGET".

[DatDude]

Anime should work work this

ova's 1-6 eps

series

1-26 eps

the rest

movies

[NemZ]

This is just an example of a series created to continue forever, not to tell a particular story. I definately have more respect for the later category.

[TriLink]

In my opinion, InuYasha should have been no more than 50 episodes tops

Yeah, fifty episodes would have been more than enough to tell the story I think. Even if it wasn't, they could have always condensed it down to the important bits, à la Death & Rebirth.

[carla]

when it comes to inuyasha i've always been into it for the characters themselves, and i think in general it had an interesting premise. the pacing, however, was just absolutely ridiculous.

i had no idea they were animating the ending, though. i'll have to look for that now, thanks for the tip, trilink!

[Defectron]

when it comes to inuyasha i've always been into it for the characters themselves

Even here the show needs a lot of work, with the main cast at least almost all character development stops after around episode 30 something. Everyone just goes through the rest of the series agnsting over the same stuff, making no progress until the very end.

[Merridian]

I musta read like twelve volumes of InuYasha back in junior high, but I guess I grew out of it or something. I didn’t touch historical-fantasy related manga after that for years, up until a few months back when the shop-owner of the comic place recommended Berserk. Even then, I didn’t actually pick THAT up until after I watched the show, which took BrikHaus saying this:

Your anime-fu is weak. Stop watching faggy animus like Evangelion, and watch good shows like Berserk.

Now I’m finally reading Berserk and realizing how bad InuYasha really was. In fairness, it isn’t right to compare them like this, but still…
The fact that InuYasha turned me off to a whole genre for 8+ years kinda says a lot. I never watched the show, though. Same goes for Ranma ½, though I dropped that at vol. 5 or thereabouts, for more or less the same reason I dropped InuYasha.

What InuYasha also made ridiculous was it's need to have the characters explain every minor detail that's going on. "WHAT'S THAT? HIS FACE IS GETTING RIPPED OFF!", "INUYASHA IS FALLING!", "WE'VE BEEN ON THE SEARCH FOR JEWEL SHARDS, AND I MUST TELL YOU THIS EVERY 5 EPISODES SO YOU WON'T FORGET".

This must be part of Takahashi's style, because I remember Ranma's action sequences being very similar. And yeah, it got on my nerves in the manga also. If you think HEARING it is bad, having to READ it all the damn time makes it feel like its stretching itself to fill frames with needlessness.

[carla]

Everyone just goes through the rest of the series agnsting over the same stuff, making no progress until the very end.

i'm with merridian on this one: that's probably just the way takahashi operates. i remember ranma-- not one shred or resolution there either. but at least ranma made me laugh, so i stuck with it

STEP 1: rumiko takahashi gets teh awesome idea. "i know! i'll create a manga about a dude who turns into a girl when splashed with cold water and is fawned over by, like, everybody. it'll be great."

STEP 2: rumiko takahashi writes 38 volumes worth of this awesome idea.

STEP 3: rumiko takahashi stops writing the story without giving any of the main character's issues any resolution whatsoever. apparently, character development takes away what made it teh awesome in the first place.

STEP 4: repeat as necessary.

[Defectron]

Ranma could get away with that because it was a comedy, I didn't expect it to have any real plot. But inuyasha supposedly is a serious anime and I hear that serious anime are supposed to have plot.

You did say there were supposed to be dinosaurs in this jurassic park of yours didn't you?

[Rabid-Sachiel]

Inuyasha: The adventures .. continue... in the manga!! What the fuck is that?!!!

Ranma: Ranma is a wanker. The anime was extremely annoying... it's just another one of Takahashi's works that won't end EVER! And all the characters were very irritating.

[Defectron]

Ranma: Ranma is a wanker.

What annoyed me about ranma is that this is the story that invented the "dumb tough guy protagonist", just like tenchi invented the bland male protagonist. Really these two characters did so much damage to the comedy anime genre even if on stand alone value both ranma and the original tenchi were ok as far as comedy anime go, nothing too special but they were alirght. It's their legacy which really ended up hurting everything.

But what's odd though is that even though inuyasha is supposedly a serious story, inuyasha as a character has personality thats essentially Ranma but a bit more ruthless, he like ranma is a bumbling tough guy with women troubles, I wish takahashi would put more effort into new characters.

[Rabid-Sachiel]

I didn't like that they just did wacky/pervy stuff the whole time.