Inuyasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale is Takahashi's latest manga. The manga tells the adventure of Kagome, a modern day middle school student who by accident travels back in time to the Sengoku period of Japan.
Kagome is soon joined by the half-demon Inu-Yasha, the lecherous monk Miroku, the demon slayer Sango and a young demon fox Shippo. The group travels together as they try to defeat the evil demon Naraku and restore the sacred jewel Shikon no Tama.
Introduction
The Inuyasha Companion is a fan site dedicated to Rumiko Takahashi's latest - and longest - manga, Inuyasha.
By the time Takahashi started publishing Inuyasha, Harley and Dylan had already decided to follow everything she did. It was a big decision for the brothers to take on a third website at that point, and it moved the project from a hobby to something more serious. This was the true genesis of Rumic World.
The brothers created The Inuyasha Companion in October of 2000. In 2002, soon after the site became a part of Rumic World, the Inuyasha anime debuts on Cartoon Network at midnight. Rumic World's traffic sky-rockets virtually overnight, and continue to increase significantly each week thereafter.
History
2000
The Inuyasha Companion was launched on October 29, 2000 on Geocities. Back then, Harley and Dylan were busy with their own Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku fansites, so they had to make a decision: To continue managing their series-specific fansite, or to create a general Takahashi super-site that would cover all of Takahashi's works. In the end the duo chose the later, which would eventually lead to the creation of Rumic World. As a direct result of that decision, The Inuyasha Companion was born.
The Inuyasha Companion was first launched as a Geocities site. As time went on, The Inuyasha Companion proved to be a capable Inuyasha tribute. Between 2000 and 2002, various new sections and features were added to The Inuyasha Companion, such as a manga cover gallery, a music section, an anime section, and a manga section.
2001-2002
On January 29 2001, Harley Acres interviewed Toshifumi Yoshida, executive producer and translator for Ranma ½. This interview resulted in a friendly relationship between the crew at Rumic World and Yoshida. In December 6th of that same year, Toshifumi Yoshida informed Rumic World exclusively of the English voice cast (note ANN mistakenly credited the Ranma ½ Perfect Edition site instead of The Inuyasha Companion) for the upcoming U.S. release of the Inuyasha anime. Since then, Rumic World and The Inuyasha Companion were no longer "just another Takahashi fansite," they're now playing with the "big boys."
Later in July of 2002, The Inuyasha Companion again became the first to break the news on a more detailed list of voice cast for Viz's English dub of Inuyasha, thanks again to Inuyasha's producer Toshifumi Yoshida.
On May 28th 2002, The Inuyasha Companion, along with Harley and Dylan's other Takahashi sites, became a part of Rumic World. A few months later an IY section was added to Rumic World's forum. Since then, just as the Inuyasha manga is still running strong in Japan, The Inuyasha Companion continued to grow bigger.
On August 31st 2002, the Inuyasha anime debuted on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim at midnight. Rumic World's traffic sky-rocketd virtually overnight, increasing by 7 to 9 times what it had been. The traffic continued to increase significantly each week thereafter. As a result, Rumic World's popularity, as well as popularity of Rumiko Takahashi in general, received a big boost in the U.S. An unfortunate side-effect was that Rumic World repeatedly went over its allocated bandwidth due to the increased traffic.
Since its creation, The Inuyasha Companion was able to provide to Takahashi fans up-to-date reports of the latest IY manga chapters and IY anime in Japan. With Harley Acres conveniently settled in Japan due to school studies, the Inuyasha Companion received and published information regarding the manga chapters in Shonen Sunday and the anime episodes within minutes of their first broadcast. In the old days, when there were no bittorrent and YouTube, The Inuyasha Companion was one of the few online sources for IY fans hungry for the series' latest story development.
As The Inuyasha Companion grew, more fans volunteered to help out. One contributor in particular, Trish, consistently submitted anime summaries for Inuyasha within the week the episodes were broadcasted in Japan.
2003-Present
"Many thanks to everyone at Rumic World/The Inu-Yasha Companion for embracing me as part of the "team" last year after I volunteered to summarize the weekly Inu-Yasha anime raw broadcasts from Japan. During the project, I felt like I've 'lived' the adventure battling Naraku and his minions, sharing frustrations, witnessing growing pains (...improving my Nihongo skills... learning to live with sleep deprivation) as the characters pursued their search for the Shikon no Tama shards and blossomed into young adulthood.
Like many of you, I share a sense of loss as the Inu-Yasha anime series concludes. However, I'm optimistic we haven't seen the last of our brash young Hanyo, his friends, or his enemies, yet! We've got lots to proud about and much to anticipate. With our continued support, I believe it's a real possibility we'll enjoy the animated conclusion to this wonderful story someday.
Please consider episodes 166-67 "Ja Mata" (See You Later!), rather than "Sayonara" (Farewell). Now that the episode summary task is over (for a while!), I'll be helping with other exciting Inu-Yasha Companion site resource projects!
So desu na ... watashi no tomadachi, domo arigato gozimasu! Ja Mata!"
After the anime ended in September 2004, Trish stayed around to help out with various small errands such as donating prizes for Rumic World contests, translations, and more. Also, after the end of the anime in 2004, rumors of new IY anime began immediately, and since then Rumic World has been plagued by questions about a new IY anime.
"Whew! We've been working on it for awhile, but we've finally finished it. We've totally re-done all of the character profiles as well as added a section for anime only characters! We think the summaries are a lot clearer now, so please check them out and enjoy!"
May 23rd 2006 saw The Inuyasha Companion's most recent major update, where the entire character profile section was re-done. With the manga still running strong in Weekly Shonen Sunday, and Takahashi's promise to reach 500 chapters, there are still a lot more IY goodies left for the Inuyasha Companion to cover.
On August 28th 2007, The Inuyasha Companion was relaunched as The Inuyasha Companion 3.0, complete with a new layout patterned off of Mason's Tomobiki-cho:
Inuyasha Companion Relaunched!
It's the twins' birthday, but you're getting the present! The Inuyasha Companion has been completely made over with a sleek new design based on Tomobiki-Cho. Get a look at the future of Rumic World!
