Inuyasha Manga: 012 Hanyou

Notice that I didn't use the English translation given to the title this time around. I chose to leave it in Romanized Japanese, because I wanted to showcase it. This word was actually invented by RT for the purposes of her story. Apparently, while there's plenty of Japanese folklore that describes humans and youkai getting together and having children, there was no name for the half-youkai, half-human offspring. RT's word serves a similar purpose as "demi-god" would to us, and I admire her invention of terminology in order to tell her story better.

In any case, we don't start the chapter with any hanyou, but an army, one of the members of which says that they plan on joining with the main forces on the morrow.

That IS pretty impressive, but that guy on the right just ruined it with his gabby exposition. I'm not only keenly aware that he's speaking to an audience outside his fellow soldiers (who would already know this), but his boss just pulls this nonsense as a circus trick. Another dude on the left carries on the expository trend by laughing and saying their entertainment for the evening is just as amazing as ever. Entertainment mumbles about how he'll tear of the enemy general's head like the boars as he munches on another animal leg in his hand. I say another one, because it looks more like a chicken leg than a boar's, and if it were the boar's, he would be eating it raw because they haven't had time to cook that thing between panels.

I'd ask how HE likes having his head pulled off, but he actually looks pretty happy. He died as he lived; chewing on some animal's flesh.

The soldiers all scramble to their feet, shouting out Entertainment's title in shock and wondering who the bastard is that killed him. Clearly a bastard that loves irony! And boars.

Yeah, he needs the camp clear of soldiers so that he can set up pins and bowl with this guy's head. Or, the little imp he called Jaken just needs to tap a staff with two heads carved into the top of it on the ground. What is it with this chapter and heads? Both the heads, an old man and young woman, appear to sleep until the action from Jaken jars the young woman awake. She opens her eyes wide and screams, which is creepy as all get-out.

She promptly goes back to sleep, probably dreaming of having a proper body. Jaken informs his "lord" that the woman's screeching means that the grave they're looking for is somewhere else. Looking bored, Lord-Dude turns away from Jaken, asking if that's so. The army is still there, despite his command that they get out of their own camp, and they're holding their weapons as one of them recognizes that they're not human. No waaaaaaaaaay...

Lord-Dude's eyes are wide with surprise, and asks them if they didn't understand what he said to them before. Guys, do you WANT to have your heads torn off? If he could do it to your super strong Entertainment, he can do it to you too! They call him a monster, which is fair, but not very smart. Still manages to rally the troops to charge forward, talking about surrounding and exterminating Lord-Dude. Lord-Dude don't give a shit, calling the whole situation barbaric and telling Jaken to take care of them with arms crossed. Lord-Dude, you have no right to be judging anyone as barbaric when you just ripped off a guy's head. Just saying.

Jaken giggles, because he LIKES barbarism, and swings his staff around in a circle, telling the army to behold its awesome power. The old man wakes up this time, and opens his mouth, but not for a scream.

Certainly more effective than Yura's fire.

On a boat somewhere in what looks like maybe a swamp or something, Lord-Dude is riding along in the front, with Jaken sitting behind, end of his staff dipped into the surrounding water. Is he trying to use it as an oar or something? I don't know if that'll do much good. Lord-Dude is called Sesshoumaru-sama by Jaken, but I'm sure we won't need to remember that, nuh-uh... Sesshoumaru asks him what's up, and Jaken tentatively suggests that may Inuyasha knows where the tomb they're looking for is.

Sesshoumaru looks contemplative a moment as he repeats Inuyasha's name, then swings his hand around to knock Jaken straight out of their boat. Rude, but impressive how he did that without even looking. He has better aim than Inuyasha, so now I want Sesshoumaru and Kaede to compete in horseshoes to see who is the true champion of aim.

Sesshoumaru must have caught Nintoujou (the staff) on its way into the water, because he uses it now to hold Jaken under the water as he monotones that Jaken reminded him of the hanyou thing. Jaken begs for forgiveness, but he's ignored by Sesshoumaru as he talks about Inuyasha being dead and sealed anyway. To Sesshoumaru's eye-widening surprise, Jaken says that the seal's actually been broken. How did he know that and Sesshoumaru didn't? Guess Sesshoumaru isn't one of the Real Youkai Housewives of Feudal Japan.

Meanwhile, just outside a village, a dot hops along the panel, huffing.  He's been at it for days, apparently.

He's not resting for long when a bicycle tire approaches him from behind, but he doesn't manage to jump out of the way in time. Kagome, riding the bike with a first-aid kit sitting in the basket on the front, hums as she squishes the little creature. She thinks it felt like she hit something, but decides it was just her imagination. I don't know how she can determine that without stopping to check, but whatevz.

She's got more important things to tend to, like Inuyasha's wounds, as he questions in the next panel. He's laying on a branch in a tree, reclining against the trunk with legs hanging off either side as he drawls that he doesn't need treatment. Kagome tells him to stop acting tough, because she knows how badly he was hurt in the fight against Yura. She demands that Inuyasha come down, and when he scoffs, she shouts her special word to bring him crashing down to the ground on his face.

Kagome, if you REALLY believe that he's injured enough to need treatment, wouldn't your enchantment pulling him to the dirt from a moderate height make it WORSE??? What happened to your sense, girl???

Nearby, Kaede is using a bow as a walking stick, arm in a sling and surrounded by doting children. One of them asks if her arm is okay, and she says she's feeling better. Her eye widens when she sees Inuyasha and Kagome grappling on the ground, and with her straddling him like that and demanding that he take off his clothes, it kind of looks like... Kaede tries to shield the children's eyes from the scene.

Kagome and Inuyasha hear Kaede warning the children of their display, and both look over with confusion.

Yeah Kagome, no means NO! Seriously, why has she suddenly become so dumb?

She's not the only one who's acting stupid. I don't know why he was grappling with her anyway, because he could EASILY have pushed her off, given his level of strength. In addition to that, though, after refusing so adamantly to take off his shirt, he does so autonomously now, showing her his injury-free chest while declaring that his body is special. Are you kidding, dude? That's probably why she's so anxious to get up on it.

Kagome is mystified that Inuyasha's already healed, no overly aggressive womanly touch required. Flashing back to when Inuyasha was slashed by Yura, she notes that there's not even a scar left from the sword wounds. Inuyasha scoffs as he's pulling back on his shirt, while Kagome wonders just what the word "hanyou" actually means.

With a yelp, Inuyasha pulls back the collar of his clothes again to glare at a dot on his chest, Kagome leaning in for a closer look at what's bothering him. The little creature Kagome ran over before is alive and well and feeding on Inuyasha's blood. He stops to look up at Inuyasha and express how happy he is that he finally found him, only to get smashed by Inuyasha's palm like a mosquito. Inuyasha brings his hand up to his face to peer at the creature, and wonders out loud if he's a flea called Myouga.

Because fleas and dogs, get it? Kagome doesn't seem to, as she questions what it is. Back at Kaede's hut, a couple of villagers examine Kagome's bike outside while Inuyasha asks Myouga to confirm his stated purpose in coming to him. Apparently Myouga is aware of someone trying to rob Inuyasha's father's grave. Myouga admits he was too anxious to keep the grave, and Inuyasha asks him if he just ran off and abandoned it.

He's a teenager alright. "I don't care about my dad, he's dumb."

Myouga says that Inuyasha's father was an imposing youkai and his blood was the tastiest thing ever. I'll take your word for that, bro. Kagome asks pointedly for information about Inuyasha's mother, and Inuyasha tells her to shut up, because his mother died a long time ago. Despite Inuyasha's wishes not to talk about her, Myouga starts to wax poetic about her renowned beauty.

Everyone just needs to respect Inuyasha's boundaries. He doesn't need Kagome to wrap gauze around him, and he doesn't need to talk about his mom. Just leave him be!

Inuyasha storms out of the hut with a scoff, though Kagome tells him to wait. She worries that she said something to offend him, wondering what was so wrong with her asking about his mom. Thinking harder about it, Kagome recalls that Inuyasha's dad was a youkai, and that he's a hanyou, and so postulates that Inuyasha's mom was actually human.

Outside, Inuyasha is sitting in his tree again, glaring into the distance as Kagome wheels her bike nearer. Kagome continues to speculate on his lineage, thinking that if his mom was human, then that would make the other half to his half-youkai half-human. She suddenly feels a shudder and wonders what it was. Inuyasha jumps down from the tree to push her face into the dirt as he yells at her to get down. Payback.

Kagome stares at the woman in the carriage, but Inuyasha stumbles to his feet, dumbfounded. He must have really good eyesight, because he identifies her as his mother, and Kagome is shocked.

Wow, that is so weird, you guys were JUST talking about her!

So, what did I think about this chapter overall? I'm a little disappointed in how RT messed up characters in order to tell a joke. I know she's the comedy queen and everything, and this manga will continue to have ridiculous jokes throughout, even though it's a little more serious than her previous works, but... In order for Kagome to do what she did to Inuyasha during this chapter, she had to forget how much pain he was in when she just TOUCHED him at the end of the last chapter. She had to forget about her intelligence and practicality. She had to forget how much she wanted to start getting along with Inuyasha. She was essentially willing to humiliate Inuyasha and possibly hurt him even more in his already injured state to get some bandages on him. All for that one little joke to work.

It was funny, don't get me wrong, but within the context of how smart and resourceful Kagome was in the last two chapters, it was WAY inconsistent. The only thing that remained was her obstinate attitude and sass, which disappeared the moment Inuyasha showed her that he wasn't actually suffering from the cuts anymore.

This is going to be first of many rants I will have to make about how no one seems to respect Inuyasha's wishes or concerns. He gets a lot of undeserved shit in this story.

Speaking of undeserved shit, how about that Sesshoumaru, huh? I have to admit, I really like him. He's one of those reoccurring antagonists that has a lot of development ahead of him, but until then, he will reign as an unparalleled ASSHAT. As much as I love reading about him, he is not a good person in the slightest, though he does take on some good qualities in the future.

Besides, he's very pretty. ;)