[sentinel28a]

Just got a chance to look at a fan-translation of the last Inu-Yasha manga chapter. So Takahashi finally made an end.

I've been keeping up with the manga in bits and pieces, enough to kind of know what's been going on. In any case, the final chapter (558) was apparently released last week in Japan, and it's good to know that Takahashi still likes happy endings--and sort of learned her lesson from the non-ending of Ranma. Don't read any further, for here be some spoilers.

1) Naraku is dead, gone, obliterated. No big surprises here; only the most sadistic of writers would allow him to win. (Such as Hideaki Anno, for instance, or Mamoru Oshii.)
2) The Shikon no Tama is also gone. Not really a surprise, but no one really got to wish on it.
3) Inuyasha is still a hanyou. Given that I haven't read all of the last few manga chapters, I don't think he was ever really given much choice in the matter, but obviously even if he was, he chose to stay what he is. This was pretty much no surprise either, since hints have been given from the beginning of the series.
4) Miroku and Sango survive, marry, and in fact the final chapter begins with Sango giving birth to her third child. I was kind of curious as to whether or not Takahashi would off them or not, but apparently she's not heartless. Good ending for them.
5) Kohaku is still around and is sort of atoning for his deeds by being a taijiya, in cooperation with Kirara. This surprised me, in a good way--I guessed he was going to buy the farm when he was first introduced.
6) Shippo is slowing maturing into a kitsune of some power. No surprise once more; he was too cute to die. He's still a little smartass, and fittingly one of the last views we get of Shippo is Inuyasha kicking the crap out of him.
7) Rin survives, and is being raised more or less by Kaede. Sesshoumaru still checks in on her, but she's not following him around any. Not really much is resolved here, but short of leaping ahead ten or fifteen years, nothing much would be anyway. (For you RinSess fanfic pairing authors: you still don't find out if Rin sees Sesshy as a father figure, or if Fluffy looks at her and thinks, "Ten more years and she's legal."
8 ) For those of you who haven't followed anything of the manga since the end of the anime, Kikyo died and this time stayed dead. And there was great rejoicing.
9) Okay, the big spoiler: Kagome and Inuyasha were separated for three years due to the destruction of the Shikon no Tama. It worked out, though: Kagome tied up loose ends at home and graduated high school. Inuyasha, we assume, did his usual thing of killing anything that pissed him off and pining for Kagome.
10) After three years, the Bone Eater Well opens up and Kagome goes back. She and Inuyasha are assumed to have married, and Kagome stays in the Sengoku Jidai, taking on Kikyo's old job of village miko.

WTF?

This is the part I do not like. It's sort of hinted that the well is closed, so Kagome is stuck in the past--but she did so willingly. It's strongly implied that she did not, in fact, bomb her Examination Hell week, so it's love keeping her there...but I dunno. No more indoor plumbing, internet, modern medicine, all the amenties of modern life? Kagome's a better person than me.

And while I know Takahashi doesn't give a damn about such things (and neither should I)--you now have a person living just before the beginning of the Tokugawa Era who knows EVERYTHING about Japanese history up to at least 2000, and who has been proven to be damn irresponsible when it comes to keeping modern things and concepts a secret from the local yokels. A good fanfic writer might just extrapolate that, because of Kagome's carelessness--or worse, because she WANTS to--Japan would win World War II. Hmmm...

Anyhow, it's done, and I have to admit it's been a fun (if frustrating at times) 11-year ride.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"All good things..."

[Aj-chan]

sentinel28a, on Jun 18 2008, 05:51 AM, said:

8 ) For those of you who haven't followed anything of the manga since the end of the anime, Kikyo died and this time stayed dead. And there was great rejoicing.

I thought that would NEVER happen. Seriously, how many lives did that chick have?! And she used everyone of them to screw with everybody else.

Quote

WTF?

This is the part I do not like. It's sort of hinted that the well is closed, so Kagome is stuck in the past--but she did so willingly. It's strongly implied that she did not, in fact, bomb her Examination Hell week, so it's love keeping her there...but I dunno. No more indoor plumbing, internet, modern medicine, all the amenties of modern life? Kagome's a better person than me.

And while I know Takahashi doesn't give a damn about such things (and neither should I)--you now have a person living just before the beginning of the Tokugawa Era who knows EVERYTHING about Japanese history up to at least 2000, and who has been proven to be damn irresponsible when it comes to keeping modern things and concepts a secret from the local yokels. A good fanfic writer might just extrapolate that, because of Kagome's carelessness--or worse, because she WANTS to--Japan would win World War II. Hmmm...

Yep, I'm pretty sure Takahashi (or pretty much any other manga-ka) doesn't consider that little plot hole to be too big of a deal.

Edit- because I can't spell

This post has been edited by Aj-chan: 18 June 2008 - 08:29 AM

[akaikurama]

Wow it really ended....

[richan]

wow, i'm actually really glad you posted this. There was no way in hell i was going to sit around and either watch the 10,000 episodes of the anime or read the 200 volumes of the manga and I really wanted to know how it ended, or if it had already ended since it was going on for so long, because I used to have a bit of an obsession with Inuyasha a few years ago, so thank you! ^__^

[Kasin]

i must read

[Voxx]

I read it and it is the WORST ending she could have possibly made...*sighs* then again she does repeat the same thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER must I repeat? OVER AND OVER AGAIN! I am just soooo glad that it is over. I mean, I loved Inuyasha when it first came out and I loved it till the band of seven and went...wow...go figure. It just was too repetitive. At least it is over...until she starts another series that repeats the same damn thing...or until she dies. I used to really like her work, but it just gets so boring after a while.

[TekoMuto]

i bet kagome is her own ancestor. lol futurama moment

[~Sarah-Chan~]

*just got through with reading it*

Wow...is all I can say. Talk about your overexploited happy ending.....

Honestly! This had to be one of the worst Mary-Sue endings....granted I know Takahashi isn't heartless but still, she could have tossed in a death beside Naraku and Kikyo (ding-dong the witch is dead! finally)

*sigh* And I agree...theoretically, Kagome could abuse her knowledge and cause massive time shifts and all that jazz but meh.....if she does that then most likely you'll have people from the future coming to stop her and we have a repeat of the series T_T

[~*Yumi*~]

It ended. I can finally die in peace.

RinxSesshy forever. F*ck all you haters.

Anyways, what a lamesauce ending.
/my opinion

[sentinel28a]

~*Yumi*~, on Jun 19 2008, 03:29 AM, said:

It ended. I can finally die in peace.

RinxSesshy forever. F*ck all you haters.

Anyways, what a lamesauce ending.
/my opinion

I only gave a quick synopsis, peppered with my own opinions--read the ending for yourselves.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"Damn, no love for Rumiko here"

[cloudacmaster]

wow a lot of things happened that i thought would happen. There were a few surprises, mainly shippo's maturing.

[~*Yumi*~]

I'll read the ending on my own time... eventually. Maybe not. I'm lazy.

[Aj-chan]

Sarah, on Jun 18 2008, 08:32 PM, said:

*sigh* And I agree...theoretically, Kagome could abuse her knowledge and cause massive time shifts and all that jazz but meh.....if she does that then most likely you'll have people from the future coming to stop her and we have a repeat of the series T_T

Plus... I don't think anyone would argue the fact that Kagome isn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box. I doubt she could even organize a bake sale, let alone a time-bending, future-altering cosmic rift of sorts.

[LADY SAKURA]

i could never keep up with the manga so now that its over i can just start reading them all and not wait for the next book to come out

LONG LIVE INUYASHA!!!!

This post has been edited by SakuraGaijin: 19 June 2008 - 11:07 AM

[sentinel28a]

Aj-chan, on Jun 19 2008, 01:32 PM, said:

Plus... I don't think anyone would argue the fact that Kagome isn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box. I doubt she could even organize a bake sale, let alone a time-bending, future-altering cosmic rift of sorts.

Agreed...which is why I've always had an idea that she left her physics book sitting out somewhere, forgotten, in a Sengoku Jidai village. Some math prodigy finds it, and bingo, Japan develops a nuclear bomb in 1902. Or she forgets her history book somewhere, and someone murders Ieyasu Tokugawa because they realize he will win the battle of Sekigahara and reunite Japan.

Damn, messing with history is fun. But blaming Kagome is just like blaming Minmei for everything that happened in Robotech...except that everything in Robotech really is Minmei's fault.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"She's Zor's mother"

[Aj-chan]

sentinel28a, on Jun 20 2008, 12:26 AM, said:

Agreed...which is why I've always had an idea that she left her physics book sitting out somewhere, forgotten, in a Sengoku Jidai village. Some math prodigy finds it, and bingo, Japan develops a nuclear bomb in 1902. Or she forgets her history book somewhere, and someone murders Ieyasu Tokugawa because they realize he will win the battle of Sekigahara and reunite Japan.

That's if the superstitious villagers don't think the guy is actually possessed by demons and kill him and burn the book first.

[sentinel28a]

Aj-chan, on Jun 20 2008, 01:09 PM, said:

That's if the superstitious villagers don't think the guy is actually possessed by demons and kill him and burn the book first.

Well, if he's possessed by demons, they would call in the local taijiya...which would be Sango, Kohaku, or Sango's kids.

That would make an interesting fanfic. Kagome's and Sango's children have to go around Japan, performing damage control for their ADHD-afflicted mother.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"Look, another styrofoam ramen container"

[Aj-chan]

sentinel28a, on Jun 20 2008, 07:08 PM, said:

Well, if he's possessed by demons, they would call in the local taijiya...which would be Sango, Kohaku, or Sango's kids.

You have to watch out for those villages who have a "burn first, ask questions later" philosophy.

Quote

That would make an interesting fanfic. Kagome's and Sango's children have to go around Japan, performing damage control for their ADHD-afflicted mother.

Considering the genetics involved, I don't think I'd want to go on any journeys with Kagome's kids... They would have an uphill battle just to live, let alone be productive and useful.

[sailorgaia]

Thanks, sentinal! Now I never have to torture myself by reading it all! ^___^ I love Rumiko, don't get me wrong; she has great concepts for stories but damn if she doesn't have a penchant for dragging things out! ;o; 11 years of waiting!? I'm really glad I stopped at book 5.

[firegirl26]

the part were kagome calls Sesshoumaru brother and he gives her a dirty look like i am going to kill you . that was so funny

[excel excel]

sailorgaia, on Jun 23 2008, 07:29 AM, said:

Thanks, sentinal! Now I never have to torture myself by reading it all! ^___^ I love Rumiko, don't get me wrong; she has great concepts for stories but damn if she doesn't have a penchant for dragging things out! ;o; 11 years of waiting!? I'm really glad I stopped at book 5.

I was always told that she has a tendency to stop where she left off and finished later like she did with One Pound Gospel. Im still pretty bitter at how the anime ended. So I stopped at that point lol.

[sailorgaia]

excel excel, on Jun 23 2008, 01:41 PM, said:

I was always told that she has a tendency to stop where she left off and finished later like she did with One Pound Gospel. Im still pretty bitter at how the anime ended. So I stopped at that point lol.

One Pound Gospel!! That series gets so little love! If you didn't like the manga, you'd probably love the new drama they made this year. Happy endings abound!

[~Sarah-Chan~]

Aj-chan, on Jun 21 2008, 12:17 PM, said:

You have to watch out for those villages who have a "burn first, ask questions later" philosophy.

Considering the genetics involved, I don't think I'd want to go on any journeys with Kagome's kids... They would have an uphill battle just to live, let alone be productive and useful.

Agreed. Kagome's children would be greatly defected.

[GiveUpTheGhost]

What's sad is I think berserk is going to take longer than Inuyasha

[The Puppeteer]

is it really over. i haven't watched it in a while....

[sentinel28a]

The Puppeteer, on Jun 25 2008, 05:02 AM, said:

is it really over. i haven't watched it in a while....

Well, the anime "ended" back in 2004. (More like just stopped in the middle.) This is the manga that just ended.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"And it actually did end"

[Ashori]

I read the manga here and there, watched the anime all the way through, and read the last chapter of the manga. I actually liked it, but then again I'm a sucker for a happy ending. XD Kagome calling Sesshoumaru her brother-in-law and his face made me bust up, and I love seeing Miroku and Sango's kids playing with InuYasha.

And I still support SessRin. Cause if it did continue (which thank god it's not) I do think those two would end up together. =P

[Ciera Fox]

i had seen that they are going to pick inuyasha back up from where they left after the author finishes the manga series
hopefully they add a lil more to the next season

[mangahero]

I dont think so. It officially ended back in whenever. but now she can finally get to work on my dreamed of sequel to Ranma!!!

[sentinel28a]

mangahero, on Jun 27 2008, 08:56 AM, said:

I dont think so. It officially ended back in whenever. but now she can finally get to work on my dreamed of sequel to Ranma!!!

Supposedly she finally brought Inu-Yasha to an end to work on a new series, which--supposedly--she will be announcing before the end of the summer. I'd be surprised if she went back to Ranma, but that would be awesome if she did. As it is, I'm pretty certain she'll be recycling plots from Ranma (and Inu-Yasha) in whatever new series she does, so she might as well go back and finish up Ranma.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"Like Evangelion, but funny"