InuYasha (犬夜叉) is a 2000 television anime series based on Rumiko Takahashi’s manga series of the same name. The series was adapted by studio Sunrise, and the staff credits for this season include directors Masashi Ikeda & Yasunao Aoki, series composition writer Katsuyuki Sumisawa, character designer Yoshihito Hishinuma, and music composed by Kaoru Wada. The series first aired in Japan on October 2000, with these batch of episodes airing between May to November 2001.
Background:
“Together with their friends Miroku, Shippo, Sango and Kirara, Inuyasha and Kagome continue their search for the shards of the Shikon Jewel. Their task, however, is not made any easier by Naraku, who continually seems to be inventing newer and more dangerous ways to thwart them.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, May 2024.
Rumiko Takahashi is considered by many to be one of the biggest manga artists in Japan, with many of her works being adapted into anime form – some even had many episodes. InuYasha is a standout in the group as it was both a shonen series that would fit in with Dragon Ball and Gundam in the west, but it was also an Isekai before the genre became very oversaturated. The series eventually continued with Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon by the same animation studio.
InuYasha, much like Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2, has a lot of episodes and also films over the years. And because of that, it does make licensing and sales a bit of a challenge. In North America, Viz Media were able to release the entire franchise across multiple sets on DVD and then on Blu-ray years later. In the UK however, the franchise barely saw a home video release outside of most of the episodes from its first season by a random distributor called Fremantle.
Anime Limited eventually brought the series back into the UK spotlight when they released the first season, however this was pretty easy for them because the BBFC costs were already sorted by Fremantle. The fact that they were committed to not only bring a long-form series onto Blu-ray but also license the next batch of episodes. It’ll be expensive for them in terms of authoring and rating costs but if they sell then it’s a good sign for the rest of the franchise to see a UK release.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Anime Limited are taking a bit of a risk releasing collector’s edition sets for the whole of InuYasha but here we are. For now the second season manages to keep consistency.
This release is presented with a rigid box containing an Amaray case housing the Blu-ray discs, in addition to a 20-page booklet, which includes an essay about the show’s second season and a couple of illustrated artwork from the anime.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £69.99. A standard edition Blu-ray was also made available around the same timeframe.
The series was made available as an early bird during the month of May, and was on offer for £39.99 with the Anime Unlimited membership lowering the cost down to £36.99.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 20-page Booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 20th May 2024
The collector’s edition release for InuYasha Season 2 contains episodes 28-52 of the series across three Blu-ray discs, with the encode & authoring done by VDMS. Audio options include both Japanese with English subtitles and the Ocean Group English dub commissioned by Viz Media.
In case you missed it in my previous unboxing post for Season 1, the North American Blu-ray release by Viz Media was authored badly (many of their titles were encoded in the wrong colour matrix, but InuYasha in particular also suffered from missing and duplicated frames which caused some stuttering) so Anime Limited made the dedicated decision to re-author the discs with VDMS, who have been supporting Anime Limited in recent years on their UK 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray releases.
The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.
In Japan they split the series into four seasons (or arcs), so this release up to the end of Disc 2 wraps up the first arc, while Disc 3 starts the second arc.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 1.33:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 3:
- Interview with Japanese Composer Kaoru Wada
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
InuYasha Season 2 is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can be bought through the AllTheAnime Store.
For the standard edition, it is also available across different retailers including Amazon UK, AllTheAnime Store, and Anime-on-Line.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment