I know I'm not the only one here who reads the manga and I know that the spoilers forum has an IY manga topic. However, I'm curious to see how many of the forumers are into the Inuyasha manga as well as the anime and I thought it would be interesting to have a manga topic. I've noticed that fans tend to have different perspectives on things according to whether they've seen the anime/manga/both and whether they've seen it in English or Japanese.

I buy the Japanese manga myself and read it using the English translations from Sengoku o-Togi Zoushi, as I can't actually speak/read Japanese. (The reason for this is that there's a lot more IY manga available in Japanese than there is in English and lets just say that I have a few issues with Viz's translations.)

I like both but overall I prefer the manga to the anime. Mainly because the manga doesn't have the anime's problem of an overdose of filler episodes. (which, ironically enough, are added in so the anime doesn't catch up to the manga) Adding a one or two fillers in at a time is fine and they can serve as a good break but too many can cause things to drag and it feels like the series is going nowhere (so I tend to skip them - I'm a bit of a purist).And I'll admit to missing the manga's goriness too (some of the gorier moments had to be toned down for TV) - I'm a bit bloodthirsty. Then there's also the fact that some things are handled better in the manga than they are in the anime but on the other hand some things are also handled better in the anime than they are in the manga. I continue to keep up with both, so I can get the best of both worlds. And, funnily enough, if it hadn't been for the fillers I probably wouldn't have bought the IY manga in the first place. (this stuff isn't cheap if you live in England )

So, who else is into the manga? Which do you prefer - manga or anime? Anything you're particularly looking forward to seeing animated? Any predictions for future events?

OK, you get the idea. Just trying to spark some discussion whilst we're waiting for the fansub dilemma to be sorted out.

TODAY IS INUYASHA DAAAAYYYY!! WHEEEEEEEE!

I subscribe to Shonen Sunday so I do get Inuyasha. Then once I'm done with it I just sell it to the bookstore and get the tankoubon a few months later. I can usually understand the comic without help, but on occasion there's a chapter with a larger amount of colloquial terms or slang that I don't understand.

I also would much rather read and watch the show in its native Japanese. So while I have all of the Japanese chapters, I've also bought two English Graphic Novels: volume one, and the volume five, where Inuyasha turns human for the first time. I have a nostalgic soft spot for those two parts of the story.

But in general, I prefer the manga, too. Sometimes I like taking out my manga and reading along with the dialoge as I watch, too, since in many places the manga and anime match word-for-word. But there's moments from both where I think I feel more emotion from the manga, and conversely, where I feel more power coming from the anime, particularly thanks to the seiyuu...


Kagome's battle with Tsubaki, for one. While I really liked the manga chapters, Satsuki Yukino's performance in the anime gave me a WHOLE new respect for Kagome. And I probably shouldn't even start rambling about how much I adore Kappei Yamaguchi's Inuyasha, because I'll turn into a rabid fangirl right before your eyes! XD

Bankotsu's death, Kikyou's death... both were moments that were much more dramatic in the anime (and I enjoyed it for that) than in the manga.

But there's places in the MANGA that absolutely break my heart over and over. Some of the more romantic and emotional moments seem to be a little more sweetly treated in the manga, but it might be from my being able to imagine the emotion on my own, rather than hearing it on-screen. One spot for me were the chapters where Kagome has to decide whether or not she wants to go back to the feudal era when Inuyasha has chosen to be with Kikyou. Another spread was where Inuyasha fought with Gatenmaru. The "Inuyasha... wakatteru kara..." was absolutely heartbreaking.

As for things I'm looking forward to...





Shall I say it...? It was in my sig for weeks before I changed.










KONGOUSOUHA!! I absolutely can't WAIT to see the Otherworld battle (as I"ve dubbed it) animated.

And I'm looking forward to Princess Abi.






WOOHOO!

I try to read the manga but ordering from the US is just to expensive for my taste (plusm you mostly need a credit card) and people only share the VIZ version on internet (wtf are they thinking?!) so I can't get scanlations either. And just reading text translations... well, annoying. No pictures.
But I will not give up! I will read it someday!

::raises hand:: I've been reading the manga almost since I got into Inuyasha (Sengoku o-Togi Zoushi's translations were actually how I initially caught up to the latest events in the series, since at the time I was watching it on Adult Swim and it was just going entirely too slow for me). And while watching the anime certainly has its upsides, I prefer the manga too. There are several reasons for this, not the least being that it's way ahead of the anime , but the main reason for me is probably that Takahashi knows the characters and the story better than anyone, and so when I'm reading the manga, I know she'll get it right. By contrast, the anime has been known to screw things up royally in the past, particularly in the fillers. Usually it's not so bad, but when it is, boy... ::cringe::

I particularly dislike the anime's characterization of Kikyou. She comes off as such an uber-bitch, it's no wonder the vast majority of IY fans hate her. She's not nearly as bad in the manga. Lately the anime has been improving in its portrayal of her, but it still ticks me off on occasion.

Also, there have been a few times when the anime has messed around with events from the manga, and has managed to screw things up pretty good in the process. I like to point to episode 33 for this one... if Kagome wasn't initially affected by Naraku's illusionary death spell because of her shikon shards... then why were Miroku and Sango affected, seeing as (again, according to the anime) they had shards as well? In the manga, Kagome wasn't affected by the spell at all, so it wasn't even an issue. There was also one time when Hiraikotsu got sliced in two by some youkai or such (actually I forget who... maybe Kaijinbou?), and they never showed it getting repaired in the anime. It was just perfectly fine all of a sudden in the next ep. The manga showed Toutousai fixing it, so no one was left wondering. Things like that are mostly why I prefer the manga to the anime.

To be fair, though, the anime has done a pretty good job of expanding on certain other things more than the manga has, so it's not all bad. I think most of the fillers are just plain silly, but there are a few that are really good... 78, 79, and 100 come to mind, and there are a few others too. And like Kuro pointed out, there are a lot of scenes that the anime has even improved on. So both of them definitely have their pros and cons.

Anyway, as for what I'm most looking forward to, I think my own signature probably makes that obvious. Episodes 131 and 132, particularly that second one... I can't wait. After that, it'd probably be the Kohaku storyline in manga 313 or thereabouts... and well, pretty much everything after that.

I have a few of the english volumes of inuyasha. And I've read some chapters off of Sengoku o-Togi Zoushi, but it's hard for me to stay focused when reading those because of the format its in, as well as the lack of..erm..images. >_<
I wish someone did translations over the text on the page scans for Inuyasha. Cuz then I would zip through it. But I guess it's ok. I read plenty of manga already, I suppose I dont need to read anymore. *fooling herself* *sigh*

OK, I am a manga otaku, totally, I like it more than anime.
I usually read the manga first, then watch the anime,
but I did it the other way with Inuyasha, and why do u think?
Because I had just gotten broadband so I could dl...? NO
Because I'm retarded! I thought Inuyasha wasn't worthy to buy
(the manga that is), and I had the most stupidest reason...
not because I'm a Ranma½ addict, but because... ::gulps::
I... ::awaits her annihilation by Spect and a few others:: ...
I didn't like Miroku's hair-do... ... ... hehe... hehehehe... heh.

*ahem* anyways, now I'm buying the japanese manga,
and I read it on Sengoku Otogi Zoushi, of course.

I, too, prefer the manga over the anime for the most part, especially for the first 40 episodes or so. I'd seen the anime version first, but when I finally got around to reading the manga version, it was almost like I was reading an entirely different series. While, overall, the exact same things happen between the two, the execution is completely different. It's almost like the anime writers were like, "Hey, that one panel of the manga was a nice touch. ... Better cut it."

I shall specifically point out episode 26(?), the episode where the whole history of the Shikon no Tama is revealed. In the manga, they make this whole parallel to the relationship between Kikyou and Naraku, almost like foreshadowing (even though it has never been brough up since -_-). The anime, for some reason, skipped that whole explanation in favor of something they made up, then had this big battle in the last half of the episode that had nothing to do with the manga (and which fans of the anime are still blindly trying to draw conclusions from to this day).

Also, while I liked episode 79 overall, even though it was filler, I had issues with its explanation of Jaken. Considering he showed up in the series at the same time Myouga did, I thought it was already pretty well-implied that he was a counterpart to Myouga: a retainer left to Sesshoumaru by his father.

But, after episode 45 or so, the anime decided to stick pretty faithful to the manga, aside from the obscene amount of filler. I mentioned this in another topic, but the anime writers don't seem to know what to do with Miroku outside of canon, so just have him hit on anything female and breathing, then have Sango beat the snot out of him, usually multiple times per episode. And Kagome always has to "sit" Inuyasha an obscene number of times in fillers.

And I will never forgive them for cutting this:

I got into the anime more first, but then I read the first manga (via Viz) and realized they switched things around... quite a bit. So even though I've had a lot more experience with the anime I prefer what comes from the actual artist instead.

I've only bought 1 or 2 english mangas, but I want to get around to ordering a Japanese one somehow. I went to Web sunday and have tried ordering a Japanese manga, but... yeah... I in no way study Japanese to a great extent, mostly pick up what I can from the subbed animes and the dictionary I have handy ()

I'm pretty proud of myself for learning what I know from a few Japanese animes! But that aside, most of my reading kanji conprehension comes from knowing Chinese characters, and they differ just a little between the languages. Maybe if I had some help (or a few tips) I could get one...? *hint hint*

::smites Oily::

You're speaking in past tense for a reason, right? Right?? Keh.

Anyway... I agree with pretty everything Patches pointed out in her post. And I just remembered, episodes 49 and 50 annoyed me a bit too. They cut out a pretty good Miroku/Sango moment (and pretty much forgot Miroku completely after he was poisoned... not good ) in favor of a Kohaku/Sango one which, while nice, came at the expense of too many other things, in my opinion. There was a cute scene where Inuyasha asks Kohaku to protect Kagome that was cut out, too. And other things... a lot got switched around one way or another.

And they never seem to get the human Inuyasha episodes right, either. 13, 57, and 58 were all weird. I definitely prefer the manga for those, though I watch the anime anyway just to hear Kappei's human Inuyasha voice.

Note: I will forgive the anime almost completely if they actually do something with Kouga in the upcoming fillers.

Patches is a girl!?!? Eiiiieee...*feels dumb*



I wonder though...maybe Takahashi has left him out for a reason?

He hasn't shown up in a whole year, though... right now, my bet is leaning towards that reason being that she forgot he exists.

Either that, or my other theory... that since he already looks so much like Ryouga, Takahashi finally went ahead and gave him Ryouga's sense of direction, too.

[EDIT: Gaaaaah... this is the second time I've wasted a post milestone on Kouga... spammit! But I do like the wimpy wolf...]

Butbutbut maybe he's off doing something that takes over a year to do. Maybe he ran off to china and fell in one of the cursed springs and he's now tyring to find the spring of the drowned youkai. *stops from going any further on that one*
But seriously...it would make me sad to think that Takahashi would have him as such a big character for so long and then have him be gone without a reason.
But maybe you're right. Maybe she's finally getting a little too old *cough cough*

ROFL! Somehow, I like the image of Kouga stranded on Okinawa!
Trying to send about 20 pineapples to Kagome (almost wrote Akane,
and how the heck would he send them...? with Ginta & Hakkaku...?)

You've got a point, although there's the fact that it hasn't been quite as long story-wise to consider. (Actually, I wonder how long it has been in the manga since Hakureizan?) It would be pretty dumb for Kouga to just show up out of the blue one day with no explanation for where he's been all this time, or why he's been gone so long. Hopefully they'll at least acknowledge that--even a simple, "Oi, been a long time, wimpy wolf" would do.

Hopefully Takahashi will come up with something better, though. She's got to bring Kouga back soon anyway, doesn't she? Seeing as his two shikon shards are almost the only ones left unclaimed by either Naraku or Inu-tachi... hmm...

There's also one thing I REALLY hope they expand on just a leeeeedle bit in the anime.


HOW THE HELL DID EVERYONE GET OUTTA INU-TAISHO'S GRAVE?!


I mean, ne minute, they're making this big fuss about how only Naraku can get back from the Otherworld, next thing you know they're fighting rats back in the Realworld.

I think some of us were thinking, "WTF?"

YES! God, that was one thing about the manga that REALLY bothered me. I was convinced they skipped a chapter or something, because it was like, "Okay, so now that Naraku's left, they've gotta figure out how to leave, so now they're off to... huh?"

As for Kouga, I did the math, and he hasn't been gone as long as you'd like to think. He's been missing for approximately fifty chapters at this point, which, believe it or not, is a shorter amount of time than Sesshoumaru's been gone in the past. Sixty chapters went by between Sessho's second and third appearances (he was gone from the last half of volume 7 to the last half of volume 13). The Shichinintai arc kinda spoiled us, since everyone was doing something at once, but now the story's gotten back to the pacing it had at the beginning, where it focuses on one character at a time.


That's what I get for having a gender-neutral handle ^_^*. It's okay, the majority of the people I know online think I'm a guy. I don't really care, though. It's not like gender really means anything online.

I, on the other hand, mistakenly assume just about everyone to be female. ^_^*

Hi, I'm new here. Actually joined cause of the manga discussison. It's just sooooo hard to find people to talk about the manga with. The anime gets so much more attention. (I swear, if I hear one more poor person confused over whether or not Kagome can travel to her time without Shikon shards I'm gonna scream. The anime really messed with people's heads!)

Anyway, the manga translations were really how I got obsessed with Inuyasha. Cartoon Network had stopped playing episodes after I'd only seen around one or two. Searched on the internet for information, found the translations, and proceeded to procrastinate doing homework for the next week or so. As such, my loyalty is definately to the manga, although don't get me wrong, I also adore the anime! Especially as they seem to be sticking to closer to the manga now (anyone else get mad at the great big amounts of fluff the early anime took out? They even took out waffy moments between Inuyasha and Kikyou, which believe it or not, upset me!)

I would encourage anyone to read the manga, even if it's only the translations. They're excellent and I didn't find a problem without the pictures (although of course it's better with them, makes more sense, I personally couldn't really get the Shinintai down without pictures, too many of them and their names all sounded alike to me).

P.S. I really love the "Kouga is like Ryouga thing" as posted here. So great!!! Ah, I really miss the wimpy wolf... Anyone else have to chant everytime a new chapter comes out where Kouga is missing "She will not forget about Kouga...She will not forget about Kouga"? And yes, I understand that characters come and go for periods of time, but I'm tired of Kikyou and Kohaku plots! I want a jealous Inuyasha, not a mad Kagome or a depressed Sango! Well, ok, I like those too, but I still miss Kouga scenerios, really some of my favorites stories (like the chapter that ended up being animated in 116 (i think) by the river)

Wow! I didn't expect this many people to reply. It just always seemed to me that the majority of English-speaking Inuyasha fans had only seen the anime as on most Inuyasha boards there's very little or no discussion about the manga. Still, its nice to know that more people are into it than I thought.

I actually only started collecting the manga about 6 months ago, when I finally caught up with the IY fansubs. At the time I knew there were a lot of filler eps coming up in the anime and I wasn't sure how long I'd have to wait before the series got back to the plot so I started reading the online translations. Currently I have volumes 1-10 and 24-31 and I plan to have the whole thing eventually. As I said earlier, I find that some things are done better in the manga whilst others are done better in the anime, so its nice to see both versions. Yeah, there are some differences between the two versions but I find that the anime is a pretty faithful adaption overall and the writers do seem to have learned from some of the mistakes they made earlier in the series. It's just a pity that they ended up having to add in so much filler, it spoils the series a bit.

As for Kouga, I don't think Takahashi's forgotten about him, I just think he's been sidelined for a while whilst she deals with other plot points. I don't think it's going to be that long before he shows up though as it seems that the manga's probably going to start building up to its conclusion fairly soon. He's too important a character to be forgotten about and she can't just forget about his shikon shards either. Then again, maybe he really did get lost. (I've never seen Ranma 1/2 but I know enough about it to get the Ryouga jokes.)

Btw, Patches, that picture of Rin and Sesshoumaru just cracked me up! I agree that its a pity that some of those little moments had to be cut due to lack of episode time but, as I said, I think the anime has its share of moments too.

I'm currently collecting the VIZ manga.
I know some stuff isn't quite right, but it will be a looong time before I learn enough Japanese to read the straight manga.
I'm at volume 6 right now. I know theres like 16? volumes out so far, but I don't have the money for more.

I do like the manga better in some respects, but the anime puts depth in some areas that I like.
I dunno !!!

The thing that bothers me about the cut made to that scene is that it WASN'T for time, because they ADDED a filler scene later, with Jaken doing the little "Tameshigiri... sou dewa nai..." thing with the flower. I mean, not that that wasn't amusing and all, but you shouldn't REPLACE canon with filler. They changed a LOT in that episode, bit by bit. Overall, it was the same, but almost every single minor detail was different (and 95% of the time, better in the manga).