Why is it so popular?
 

I was just going through alot of the top ten lists of anime series and almost every time I read one, Inu Yasha made it? WHY? I have to know what everyone sees in this show? Is it the American public just being pushed toward whatever crud AS spits out? Or is there actually something worth taking a gander over to it and watching the series?

Well for one it has a very large female fanbase and everyone knows that girls is stupids. But really I'm sure the whole Adult Swim thing is what has done it. I'd like to know what top 10 lists you are looking at though because I would definitely not think of that show of being in a top 10 list either. Perhaps a top 100 list.

I rather like Inu Yasha, actually, and I'm a guy. A straight one too, so nothin close to a female.

In any case, I like the show just for what it is. The plot's decent enough, the character's are pretty entertaining and for an action-based series it's not half bad. When it all boils down to it, Inu Yasha draws you into a fantasy world that "could've been" and lets you experience it visually, just like any other anime would.

Granted, its popularity probably stems from Inu Yasha's and Miroku's rabid fangirl following and the fact that it hits a huge audience by being played on Adult Swim (and being played for what, how many years as it been now?).

I really enjoyed the Inu-Yasha manga, it has that same Takahashi magic as Rumic Theater and Mermaid Saga. I never watched the anime, but I guess it's in a bit of a DBZ role for many.

The reason for its popularity is of course exposure. Show Burst Angel on one massively popular channel, dubbed (no matter how bad) and within a month it will be praised as the best anime everrrrr by a whole lot of people.

Meh, like everyone else is saying its mostly due to the fact its on Adult swim. That and every 12-15 year old that watching adult swim is going to think its the best thing ever.

Cause for me i've never seen what was so special about it. It just bored me to sleep the times i've tried to watch it.

I'd say it's popular primarily because it's helping to get a lot of people introduced to anime.

When InuYasha was first coming out, I used to watch it with some friends who had downloaded some episodes. This kept up for about 50 episodes or so until I lost interest. I decided that there was more interesting stuff out there and moved on. But up until that point, I found the series to be fairly entertaining and fun.

It's no secret that Rumiko Takahashi is something of a powerhouse in the business. But, honestly, if it's in a Top 10 list I suspect it's simply because they haven't been exposed to more (better?) series.

I paid no mind to InuYasha. After seeing clips about Naraku in different episodes, I went and downloaded the last few episodes to get it over with. That just shows how boring it really was. Wasn't that funny. If anything, this anime should be somewhere as one of the 70th good animes. There are better animes out there.

To me, it was always Gundam Wing that made people love anime. Basically Toonami.

Ahhh, Toonami. Those were the good old days. New DBZ, Gundam Wing, and Kenshin. And I believe the first runs didn't edit out the blood.
I watched Inuyasha and I'm a guy; I enjoyed the first 50 episodes then it went straight downhill. The story was okay but the part I liked the most was the love triangle.

Well, I guess I never really saw the appeal that was put into the show myself. It just astonished me that so many people would rank it so high on the the list. Granted, it is the day and age where anything on CN is like gold apparently and whatever is being shown is supposedly good. Don't get me wrong some of them have been good but it was just this one show I could never bring myself to watch. It had that "something" I didn't find appealling.

This is just making me wonder, "What makes for a popular anime anyway these days?" It has to be the "furry" appeal that's all I am going to say.

Inuyasha, like DBZ, is one of those things that was A) better as a manga and B) went on for wall the hell too long. I was never that enamoured with the series myself, but I did watch it for a while (I had lots of friends into it, OF COURSE). It wasn't a bad series, but it just went on and on and on...like most Rumiko Takahashi stuff.

One series I don't understand the popularity of is Saiyuki. Seriously, the first season is almost all filler, and the plot progresses at a snail's pace. The art isn't especially appealing either. I simply don't understand it.

Not sure about Saiyuki myself, I didn't find the characters that interesting but I guess the concept was sorta new. I will give you the fact that the story moves really slow toward something worth watching all those episodes. That's why I like the question "What happened to the 10-14 episode series?"

These were just long enough to get the point across and still come up with a good story line and not lose the audience, sometimes.

Check out The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya it really has a decent story going for it, but the episode situation(if you've seen the series you should know) confused me.

http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/an...ancholy+haruhi

Whenever an anime gets popular I always blame it on the localization and the exposure to the NA masses. eg. Naruto! Full Metal Alchemist! Bleach! and whatever, even though most anime are popular before they ever get ported here.

Although, Inuyasha strikes me as sort of odd. I don't intend to follow it, but if I ever come across it while channel surfing then I get addicted to the episode and watch for the rest of the time that it's playing. It's so corny too since it's so easy to pick a random time to scream "Kagome!" and you'll have shouted it within 5 seconds of Inuyasha himself.

Maybe it's easy to get into without needing any prior knowledge. I've seen the Wind Scar so many times, and know of Naraku escaping death constantly, and I've never intentionally watched the show!

The series was also created by Rumiko Takahashi, the same woman who wrote/drew the infamous Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, and Mermaid Saga. She's famous for her ridiculously long plots where the two main characters take the entire series (300 plus chapters) to finally admit that they love each other... when its obvious from the getgo that they have feelings for each other.

I've heard many people call it a 'DBZ for women'... and I pretty much agree. While men enjoy the frustrations that the fighters are going through, women seem to enjoy the frustrations that the lovers go through. Its like a soap opera with a little extra fighting. My older sister loves it... I only watch it when there's nothing else on. :-\

Hey now, Maison Ikkoku was only 14 volumes. I guess it's fitting it's also her most mature and accomplished work so far (not that I don't love her other series).

Then again, in Ranma they never do honestly admit anything, so maybe it balances out.

Yeah, I guess the whole series is running on the expectations of "Will they say it this episode? Will we be getting 1/4 demons soon?"

I guess the popularity of a show has to do with something that I can't see. It has to be those darn "cat people". If the main character didn't have ears of a lynx would he be appealling all the same?

Maison Ikkoku is her best work by far and an excellent strain test standard for love-comedy series. Basically if you are going to include some form of love-comedy as the major component of a manga then you should get the characters to finally admit their love within 14 volumes. The only other series that comes to mind that thankfully does this is Love Hina. The build up can be great but any longer and it gets super old.

Perhaps in the anime they don't. I asked a friend and she said they never did although they did get close at several points in the series but then :comedyexplosiondistraction: happens and awww so mad at each other again.

However in the manga they do end up admitting their feelings for each other and at their marriage the whole :comedyexplosiondistraction: happens and awww so mad at each other again happens again and the series ends on that rather Ranma-ish note. Pretty rushed ending but it works.

Well yeah, I'll agree to an extent. Most of the time it does, cause it no longer feels exciting, you just know nothing is going to happen anyway. It's the same with most fighting and competition series (well, ones that aren't known for killing off their characters too fast).

But then, Peach Girl lasted for 18 volumes and that seemed to only get better towards the end :3

Ah, I see. I was referring to the way Akane confronted Ranma on when he said he loved her and he denied it again. That the series then ended on a very Ranmaish note felt slightly more copout to me, what with everyone still having expected them to properly get together after all this time, even IF it was a Takahashi series. She's known as the queen of romantic comedy, not queen of haha-letdown-sucka :(

One has to wonder if she just runs out of ideas by the end of these series. I know that with Ranma I felt like it had been half-assed... granted, I shouldnt use such words when refering to Rumiko Takahashi... manga-ka-goddess that she is. She has to be successful for a reason, right?

I actually havent approached Maison Ikkoku for the sheer reason that it would probably cost so much... I'll have to keep in mind that it's only 14 volumes now.

But I forget... I know that InuYasha is her most recent piece... which did she write first: Maison Ikkoku or Ranma 1/2? Ranma's success may explain The change in maturity... to have InuYasha follow the same formula as Ranma 1/2.

It goes Urusei Yatsura then Maison Ikkoku then Ranma 1/2 (who's anime did not conclude due to its animation studio going out of business) and then Inu Yasha (which concluded abruptly because it caught up with the manga). There are a couple smaller mangas, shows, series that she created or worked on be it character design, etc too.

Her best is obviously Maison Ikkoku but Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura are still fun to watch, just don't expect anything epic out of them as they're mostly character driven comedies and rather episodic.

Urusei Yatsura is fantastic, despite going on forever. It strikes a slightly different balance, with the obvious focus being on the utterly mad hijinx that take place, with Ataru's lecherous skirtchasing partly replacing the "will they, won't they" expectations, making it feel more fun than frustrating when "nothing happens".

Mermaid Saga, One-Pound Gospel and Rumic Theater are all relatively maturer than Ranma and co. but I didn't consider them since none of them end properly, which, in my eyes, makes Maison Ikkoku more accomplished.

Why can people never finish an anime the way the viewer thinks it should? We all believe it will go one way and then the last episode hits and "bam" it has that open endedness to lead into another season. Another reason I like the short simple 12-25 episode series. Most of the them give you an ENDING. Which like you all stated is probably that something that gets to me with any of Rumiko Takahasi's works. The premise of her works I just really view as a money grubber and not to entertain.

I generally don't mind openended endings, just as long as they're not something "final" that seriously pisses you off, like Saikano or Mahoromatic. I'd much rather have an ending that leaves things to the viewer's interpretation than risk being disappointed when some writer thinks his work won't be memorable enough unless he ends on a depressing- I'm sorry, I mean "bitter-sweet" note.

The ending really is up to the writer, and its possible that the way its ended means something to said writer. Granted, I look for symbolism in everything as an English major. What's the story to the writer may be different to the viewer. For the writer, the story may be the journy to a place. To the viewer, the story may be what the character does when they finally reach that place.

As for InuYasha and Ranma 1/2, the story may simply be that no matter the circumstances, life throws some fun, silly, and dramatic things into the mix. Perhaps that's appealing to the pre-teen and young teen girls: seeing that someone else is having a harder time finding love then they are.

I think all of you guys are wrong; the reason why that anime is so popular is because of Shippo. Ya the really cute thing that makes you keep watching despite the fact that all their doing is searching for an infinite number of shards from a tiny ass jewel. Like every time you "think" you're gonna stop watching you're like maybe this one last time; just to wish Shippo good bye, but that last time never comes. It just never comes...... It's just like Orange Chicken from Panda Express; you keep ordering it thinking that the next time you go there you aren't getting the same thing.