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The Inuyasha Anime and The Final Act

Sunrise made 167 episodes, stopped in 2004 with the manga unfinished, then came back five years later for a 26-episode Final Act to finish the job.

The first series ran on Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV from October 16, 2000 to September 13, 2004: 167 episodes that caught up to a manga with four years still to run, and closed inconclusively by necessity. In July 2009 the same cast and crew were announced for Inuyasha: The Final Act, which adapted volumes 36–56 in 26 episodes (October 4, 2009 – March 30, 2010), a compression of twenty-one volumes into half a year of television.

The bridge between the two runs is an artifact: Black Tessaiga, a 30-minute OVA premiered on July 30, 2008 at the It’s a Rumic World exhibition and released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 20, 2010. In the United States the anime aired on Adult Swim, and later its revived Toonami block, from 2002 to 2015: for a generation of American viewers this was the feudal fairy tale of the late-night hours.

Inuyasha, Vol. 20

Volume 20, from the stretch of manga the original 2000-2004 anime adapted.

TWO RUNS AND A BRIDGE

Sunrise · 2000–2010

The First Run · 167 Episodes

2000–04: a hit that outran its source and had to stop mid-story, the defining production fact of the franchise.

The Gap · 2004–09

Five years in which the manga finished alone. The Black Tessaiga OVA (2008) kept the cast assembled while the ending was written.

The Final Act · 26 Episodes

Volumes 36–56 at sprint pace, same cast, same crew: an ending delivered as a single deliberate season.

The Toonami Years

Adult Swim from 2002, Toonami after: thirteen years of American broadcasts made Inuyasha the Takahashi series a US generation grew up inside.

The Films Yashahime The History

The Inuyasha Anime and The Final Act

TWO RUNS AND A BRIDGE

THE FIRST WORD