Volume 1

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The Inuyasha Narrative, Part 1: The Half-Demon Inuyasha
	Translation provided by: Robby Stine of Kanabits

The Half-Demon Complex

Inuyasha was the first shonen manga hero I ever wrote. I made him a half-demon because perfect characters are hard to empathize with. The half and half thing is great. When creating a character, it’s so much easier visualizing a character with flaws. I love characters harboring some sort of complex.

Characters that lack flaws have their appeal, but I’m not good at writing them, so I stick with the character types I know. At the start of publication, I thought that Inuyasha’s half-demon complex would probably provide good motivation for his actions.

Boy of the Sleeping Forest

The first time we see Inuyasha, he’s pinned to a tree, fast asleep. I came up with that idea when thinking about how to express the passage of time, making use of the tree’s own growth. When Inuyasha was first pinned to the tree, it wasn’t all that big. But he’s stuck there for quite some time, and we can see that the tree has gotten massively bigger while Inuyasha hasn’t changed at all. I thought it would be nice to be able to express it subtly like that. I thought of a number of ways to do it, and that was what I decided on. The awakening of a character long in slumber is a common story motif, but it was something I really wanted to try. In a cave, trapped in ice…I considered all the common tropes, but in the end, I thought being found sleeping in a forest was the best choice. It’s a beautiful image.

On Being a “Dog”

With regards to Inuyasha’s character design, I drew some prototypes in a sketchbook, but I have no idea where it went…I tend not to hold on to such things. Even if I did I’d probably be too embarrassed to show anyone, though. I’d say the most striking thing about his design would be his ears. Even if you can’t see his face, those ears are an immediate signal you are not dealing with a normal person. With ears on the top of his head like that, you have to imagine that there’s absolutely nothing in the spot human ears are located.

The reason I made him a dog is simply that they are the most popular human companions. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s it. I don’t dislike dogs, but I’ve never had one myself, nor have I been around them much…. I always thought it would be nice, but I never had the chance. I like Shiba Inu and those dogs with squashed faces like pugs and whatnot. Inuyasha falls more on the Shiba side of things, of course.

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