Inu-Yasha 6 (big ed.)

Rumiko Takahashi – Viz – 2011 – 56 volumes
this omnibus contains vols. 16-18

See what I mean about the omnibuses we’ve been treated to lately? I can’t get enough of these VizBig series. Inu-Yasha’s a great candidate, since now I don’t have to spend considerable time and money tracking down 56 volumes. Plus, I imagine reading Inu-Yasha a volume at a time feels less rewarding since it moves so fast, even the three volumes of content that I’m getting in the omnibus feels like it goes by just as fast as one.

What can I say? Takahashi is skilled at writing appealing action series. I’m still very drawn to the characters, and I think the battles with the monsters are interesting. Admittedly, I got a little bored of the “this monster is a part of Naraku and therefore invincible!” battles that happened a couple times in this volume, fearing that the rest of the series was going to be similar creatures. But after a couple of those monsters, the third “volume” in the omnibus went back to good old fashioned character drama between Kagome, Inu-Yasha, and Kikyo, which are my favorite parts. There’s something very human and appealing about Inu-Yasha’s inability to chose between Kikyo, the love of his life from the past, and Kagome, the woman he fell in love with after he thought Kikyo was dead. It’s subtle, and admittedly not a major part of the story, but when it does come up, and the drama lasts several chapters like it does here, those are my favorite parts. It also usually means a trip back to the present for Kagome, and that will never get old.

But yes. This volume is mostly battles. The first one is a fight between Naraku and Inu-Yasha, with Naraku’s two new demons helping him out. This is a carryover from last volume. You know how this goes. Everyone is near death, it looks like Inu-Yasha is dead… and then they overcome. Later, a mind-reading demon shows up to fight Inu-Yasha as Naraku minion #3. This fight was interesting, because it involved the power of the Tetsusaiga and its effect on Inu-Yasha, and we are shown a new aspect of Inu-Yasha that’s not just a power-up (though it is that, of course). Later, we go back to the Tetsusaiga’s swordsmith and there’s a battle with a couple familar faces that Inu-Yasha has to fight as a human (another one of my favorite parts of the series, since it so clearly bothers Inu-Yasha). Then we have a fight with Naraku minion #4 that gets Koga in on the action as he happens to be wandering by. At this point, using Tetsusaiga is a challenge, and that’s part of this fight, too. Then the Kikyo stuff comes after this.

It is formulaic… super formulaic. And there were some points that started to drag because of the formula in this volume. But there’s enough to like about characters that I forgave the formula in hopes that I would be rewarded with something I did like, and I frequently was. It’s fun to read, especially in a large format like this, and the volumes are a great value for a really good series. As long as it is, I’m glad I started reading it with these omnibuses.